Terror and Wonder

A genre itself is, in the words of the official dictionary definition: ‘A style or category of art, music or literature.’ Some examples of genres in literature include fantasy, fiction and non-fiction. On the surface, this seems dull. However, what most of us tend to forget is that these are umbrella terms, for such diverse ranges of intricate, delicate little subgenres, that you can only see if you look very, very closely. Horror is no exception; there are, in total, around 30 different horror subgenres. However, Horror is one of the most layered and complex genres imaginable, as every subgenre has fine lines to walk in order to send shivers down a reader’s back. This article explores a very old, very controversial subgenre of horror - Gothic Literature, which due to its way of scaring readers (using society’s fears at the time and twisting them, as well as rebelling against humanity’s normal boundaries) has acquired a reputation for trashiness and worn stereotypes. To explore this, we will look at one very specific, very famous Gothic novel - The Woman in Black, written by Susan Hill. One way Gothic Literature creates fear is by taking societal tensions at the time of writing and twisting them into dark fantasies. This is a rebellion against society’s unspoken stigma subjects. In The Woman in Black, a civilised, prolific lawyer is sent to organise a recently deceased woman’s paperwork. He is plagued by glimpses of a woman dressed “in deepest black, in the style of full mourning that had rather gone out of fashion except, I imagined, in court circles on the most formal of occasions”. This quote is from the first instance that the narrator, Arthur Kipps, sees this woman. Throughout the book she is also referred to using words such as ‘emaciated’ and appears before a person when they are about to die. This book was published in 1983. The 1970s to 80s was the period in time when the media was beginning to seriously develop the modern idealised version of women as thin; consequently, the number of eating disorders shot through the roof. The most notable rise was in Anorexia Nervosa. Eating disorders, however, simultaneously became a taboo subject; most people were afraid to talk about it. The fact that the Woman in Black herself - a symbol of death - is shown as thin and emaciated taps into the societal fear of women dying of starvation, from being unable to escape the vicious circles that lead to eating disorders. Evidence for this would be that the Woman in Black appears just before a person dies. Susan Hill, as a woman herself, would most likely have been more aware of these issues, and closer to them too; rises in Anorexia were most commonly seen in female models. An emotional connection to the subject would have made it easier for her to create the image of this emaciated, tortured woman. Even the inescapability of Anorexic cycles

is shown in her writing - for the Woman in Black is unable to escape the state she is in. She is a wraith-like spirit, unable to properly die or live. Dragging a stigmatised subject out into the light like this would have made Hill’s readers feel out of their depth; but would simultaneously have given them more of a connection to the story. The bigger the emotional connection, the easier it is to terrify the reader. Another way Gothic literature creates terror is by using evolutionary fears in the writing. Everybody has five shared evolutionary fears: extinction; loss of autonomy; mutilation or bodily THE BIGGER invasion; separation, abandonment or rejection, and humiliation, shame or worthlessness. The house where Arthur Kipps stays, Eel Marsh House, is in the middle of a deserted marsh, nowhere near any civilization. He is completely alone. This setting complies with the evolutionary fear of separation. The use of this evolutionary fear will, on a deep, primeval level, terrify Hill’s readers. Humans are, on some level, still animals, and abandonment would have, in the wild, have threatened our lives by making us vulnerable. Another evolutionary fear The Woman in Black uses is extinction - the terror of ceasing to exist. One of the triggers for this fear is being in the dark, as this deprives us of our THE EMOTIONAL senses while some of our supposed “predators” would be unaffected. In one notable appearance of the Woman in Black during chapter 11, titled “Whistle and I’ll Come to You”, all the lights fizzle away in Eel Marsh House and Kipps has the distinct impression of someone passing him by. However, his senses are unable to provide any solid information. The CONNECTION, Woman in Black shoves Kipps into the role of the prey. Again, this terrifies readers on a primeval level, instinctively making them feel hunted. People who read Gothic Literature are consciously rebelling and pushing against the simple evolutionary boundaries of what’s safe. Finally, Gothic Literature uses the ‘uncanny valley’ to inspire THE EASIER IT fear. The ‘uncanny valley’ was a phenomenon originally theorised by Sigmund Freud; one of the first people to present an in depth view of human psychology. The baseline of his theory is that some humans are unsettled and scared by things that look humanoid - and yet are somehow IS TO TERRIFY still dissimilar. The eyes are one of the main points where this can occur. Since humans have become accustomed to searching for possible social interaction via eye contact, we’re generally very good at telling a real person by their eyes. If the eyes on a replica of a human face are too symmetrical, or too lifeless, or flawed in any way, they THE READER. can send a very specific feeling through the person viewing the replica - the feeling of something just not being quite right. The reasons for this occurrence are still being investigated, and are hazy; one of the more likely theories is that our brains don’t like being proved wrong or tricked. For example, optical illusions; our brains can’t quite work their way around them, so fascinating tricks, or glitches, occur. The ‘uncanny valley’ is a feeling that corresponds with the brain being tricked; being unable to identify the clear source of the “wrongness” experienced sends some brains into a panic. The Woman in Black is a ghost - she used to be human, and yet she now isn’t. She bears a lot of resemblance to a human, but isn’t alive. She is uncanny. The ‘uncanny valley’ is a smaller part of Gothic Literature that sometimes doesn’t appear in later works, but it’s still often there; adding more complex layers to the terror created elsewhere. In using this technique, Hill is taking more of a gamble on the effects since the fear of humanlike things doesn’t affect everyone. And therefore not every reader. However, since it’s only a very small nudge that can send a humanlike creature hurtling into the ‘uncanny valley’, it isn’t that much of a risk. Some readers will get the bonus layer of uneasiness when the Woman in Black is described, and some won’t. To conclude: fear in Gothic Literature has very clear origins. Societal fears, shared fears and the ‘uncanny valley’ are three key by C Simmonds sources. This corresponds to the fact that all horror genres have very Year 10 set ways in which to make their audience feel fear. However, Gothic Literature is capable of layering these effects with an element of complexity, as shown with the ‘uncanny valley’ in the Woman in Black. Gothic Literature also pushes at the boundaries of what is acceptable in that time - for example, the twisting of societal fears - to make the reader feel abject terror.