Overview

From vampire apocalypses, shark attacks, witches, and ghosts, to murderous dolls bent on revenge, horror has been part of the American cinematic imagination for almost as long as pictures have moved on screens. But why do they captivate us so? What is the drive to be frightened, and why is it so perennially popular? Why Horror Seduces addresses these questions through evolutionary social sciences. Explaining the functional seduction of horror entertainment, this book draws on cutting-edge findings in the evolutionary social sciences, showing how the horror genre is a product of human nature. Integrating the study of horror with the sciences of human nature, the book claims that horror entertainment works by targeting humans' adaptive tendency to find pleasure in make-believe, allowing a high intensity experience within a safe context. Through analyses of well-known and popular modern American works of horror--Rosemary's Baby; The Shining; I Am Legend; Jaws; and several others--author Mathias Clasen illustrates how these works target evolved cognitive and emotional mechanisms; we are attracted to horrifying entertainment because we have an adaptive tendency to find pleasure in make-believe that allows us to experience negative emotions at high levels of intensity within a safe context. Organized into three parts identifying fictional works by evolutionary mode--the evolution of horror; evolutionary interpretations of horror; the future of horror--Why Horror Seduces succinctly explores the cognitive processes behind spectators' need to scream.

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9780190666545

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Reviews

For decades, horror fans have smirked at pretentious interpretations of their favorite movies.... Why Horror Seduces is an attempt to understand the genre as 'powerful experience, ' and a case for considering it in the light of evolutionary psychology ... Clasen's book comes as something of a revelation. The fact that it is also a burning manifesto for the benefit of scaring yourself witless makes me want to stand up and applaud as I read it ... In the book's best moments I feel that the child inside, pulling his feet up under the cover to hide from the monster under the bed, is granted a form of vindication. --Translated from FLM His book offers a welcome and insightful contribution to the field, which would be of use both to students and scholars as well as horror fiction fans more broadly. -- European Journal of Communication I can't imagine what it must be like to have a brain as crowded with ideas as his must be! This is an academic book, and sometimes those can be dry, but that is not the case here. Clasen is clearly passionate and knowledgeable about his topic and his approach. -- MonsterLibrarian.com Over the course of thirteen brilliantly argued chapters, Mathias Clasen uses the sharp edge of evolutionary psychology to skin the horror genre alive and reveal the wet red tendons twitching under the surface. Why Horror Seduces is sure to provoke admiration, argument, debate, and delight among fans and creators. An essential read for anyone who cares about terrifying fiction, -- Joe Hill, author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Fireman: A Novel Who would have thought that horror could be so delightful? Mathias Clasen sheds light on the paradox of terrifying entertainment, illuminating human nature and the nature of art -- Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined Mathias Clasen's wonderfully exploratory and explanatory Why Horror Seduces should be read and enjoyed by anyone with an interest in this most misunderstood of genres. --Peter Straub, author of Interior Darkness: Selected Stories and Ghost Story His book offers a welcome and insightful contribution to the field, which would be of use both to students and scholars as well as horror fiction fans more broadly. --European Journal of Communication A brilliant and much-needed evolutionary psychology take on the horror genre. I loved it. --Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Film, author of Horror Film and Affect (2016) and editor of Horror: A Literary History (2016). It is one of the very best works yet produced under rubrics like literary Darwinism, biocultural criticism, or evolutionary literary study. The most important challenge to the literary Darwinists has been to integrate convincing evolutionary explanations with high-quality, sophisticated literary criticism. Clasen succeeds brilliantly in meeting this challenge...The writing is pithy, witty, vivid, clear, and forceful...This is one of those very rare (vanishingly rare) works of literary criticism that are a genuine joy to read on their own merits, as works of literature. --Academia.edu [T]his book is a culmination of empirical and theoretical work [Clasen has] been doing for over a decade. As such, it is steeped in the relevant literature and empirical research (psychology, philosophy, literary theory), and the horror itself (i.e., novels, films, games). The book would make a splendid textbook for undergraduate courses in several fields that touch on horror, either as a genre or as a psychological phenomenon. One could profitably employ the text in film studies, media studies, horror literature courses, and in evolutionary psychology curricula. --Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture In this unique, accessible contribution to horror studies, Clasen (Aarhus Univ., Denmark) uses evolutionary science and a biocultural approach to investigate the appeal of horror...Impeccably well written and researched, this work persuasively argues for a new methodology in approaching horror...Highly recommended. --Choice

"""For decades, horror fans have smirked at pretentious interpretations of their favorite movies.... Why Horror Seduces is an attempt to understand the genre as 'powerful experience, ' and a case for considering it in the light of evolutionary psychology ... Clasen's book comes as something of a revelation. The fact that it is also a burning manifesto for the benefit of scaring yourself witless makes me want to stand up and applaud as I read it ... In the book's best moments I feel that the child inside, pulling his feet up under the cover to hide from the monster under the bed, is granted a form of vindication."" --Translated from FLM ""His book offers a welcome and insightful contribution to the field, which would be of use both to students and scholars as well as horror fiction fans more broadly."" -- European Journal of Communication ""I can't imagine what it must be like to have a brain as crowded with ideas as his must be! This is an academic book, and sometimes those can be dry, but that is not the case here. Clasen is clearly passionate and knowledgeable about his topic and his approach."" -- MonsterLibrarian.com ""Over the course of thirteen brilliantly argued chapters, Mathias Clasen uses the sharp edge of evolutionary psychology to skin the horror genre alive and reveal the wet red tendons twitching under the surface. Why Horror Seduces is sure to provoke admiration, argument, debate, and delight among fans and creators. An essential read for anyone who cares about terrifying fiction,"" -- Joe Hill, author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Fireman: A Novel ""Who would have thought that horror could be so delightful? Mathias Clasen sheds light on the paradox of terrifying entertainment, illuminating human nature and the nature of art"" -- Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined ""Mathias Clasen's wonderfully exploratory and explanatory Why Horror Seduces should be read and enjoyed by anyone with an interest in this most misunderstood of genres."" --Peter Straub, author of Interior Darkness: Selected Stories and Ghost Story ""His book offers a welcome and insightful contribution to the field, which would be of use both to students and scholars as well as horror fiction fans more broadly.""--European Journal of Communication ""A brilliant and much-needed evolutionary psychology take on the horror genre. I loved it.""--Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Film, author of Horror Film and Affect (2016) and editor of Horror: A Literary History (2016). ""It is one of the very best works yet produced under rubrics like ""literary Darwinism,"" ""biocultural criticism,"" or ""evolutionary literary study."" The most important challenge to the literary Darwinists has been to integrate convincing evolutionary explanations with high-quality, sophisticated literary criticism. Clasen succeeds brilliantly in meeting this challenge...The writing is pithy, witty, vivid, clear, and forceful...This is one of those very rare (vanishingly rare) works of literary criticism that are a genuine joy to read on their own merits, as works of literature.""--Academia.edu ""[T]his book is a culmination of empirical and theoretical work [Clasen has] been doing for over a decade. As such, it is steeped in the relevant literature and empirical research (psychology, philosophy, literary theory), and the horror itself (i.e., novels, films, games). The book would make a splendid textbook for undergraduate courses in several fields that touch on horror, either as a genre or as a psychological phenomenon. One could profitably employ the text in film studies, media studies, horror literature courses, and in evolutionary psychology curricula.""--Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture ""In this unique, accessible contribution to horror studies, Clasen (Aarhus Univ., Denmark) uses evolutionary science and a biocultural approach to investigate the appeal of horror...Impeccably well written and researched, this work persuasively argues for a new methodology in approaching horror...Highly recommended.""--Choice"

Author Information

Mathias Clasen is Associate Professor of Literature and Media in the Department of English, Aarhus University.

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