Philosophy Of Horror

Sarah Kiser
ENG 359
9/29/09
Critique of “The Philosophy of Horror”
Noel Carroll’s “The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart” brings about galore(postnominal) problems while establishing his definition of the art- offense genre. While packaging the genre into a clear-cut definition with little room for exception, he fails to hold some(prenominal) common elements or examples that audiences often categorize as horror. This is not to interpret all of Carroll’s philosophy is scatty; he questions why we fear what we know is fiction and makes proficient points. As a whole, Carroll’s philosophy seems to attempt to be too cut and dry, which clearly does not work for such a bizarre genre.
One noticeable flaw in Carroll’s philosophy is the fact that he omits anything he cannot render a definition for. Simply stated, Carroll believes horror is entity based. His “definition of horror involves essential reference to an entity, a monster, which then serves as the circumstance object of the emotion of art-horror” (Carroll 41). He defines a monster as “any being not believed to exist now harmonize to contemporary science” (27). Monsters argon “inconceivable, indescribable, and unmentionable” (20) as surfacespring as “impure and unclean” (23).



This requirement qualifies many books and films as belonging to the horror genre; Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Blob are well known examples of monster-based works. However, works that the general population would consider to be horror are omitted from Carroll’s theory because of the absence of
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monsters. It is my virile belief that movies can be horrifying without the presence of monsters. If millions of flock consider something to be of the horror genre, who is one man to say it is, in fact, not?
As Carroll says, monsters are in many works that are not horror; fairy tales and myths are full of supernatural creatures. He does differentiate between...If you want to occupy a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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