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Weird and cosmic short horror fiction and the illustration of existential fears
Brianna Williams, University of Tennessee at ChattanoogaFollow
Jaynes, Michael
Department Examiner
Guy, Matthew
The literary genre of horror fiction is uniquely capable of presenting its readers with the horrific, terrifying, and repulsive while remaining an acceptable and sought-after genre. Moreover, the horror genre is also often able to serve as a type of lens through which readers can recognize socio-historical and cultural fears. Within the many subgenres of horror, cosmic and weird horror continue in this ability, but are able to present their readers with more abstract, existential fears. This research is an exploration and analysis of the ability of cosmic and weird horror to reveal the real, personal existential fears of their readers, and why these two subgenres of horror fiction specifically are acceptable and oftentimes desired ways to confront those fears.
Thank you to Dr. Jaynes and Dr. Guy for their endless support and aid in this research paper.
B. A.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
Existentialism in literature; Horror stories
horror; horror fiction; weird horror; cosmic horror; existential fears; existentialism
[i], 31 leaves
Williams, Brianna, "Weird and cosmic short horror fiction and the illustration of existential fears" (2021). Honors Theses.
https://scholar.utc.edu/honors-theses/296
English Language and Literature Commons