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The
ghost story as a genre
The ghost
story
The ghost stories
belong to the part of the literature
called horror literature; it
has the purpose of scaring the
reader of the story with situations
that cause horror or fear.
The most used
technique in this tales is the
suspense, the slow insinuating
of a doubt or of a frightening
revelation in the reader.
The horror
stories wereborn in the 19th century
in the romantic period, because
there was a growing interest for the
fantastic and supernatural elements
in the circle of the intellectuals.
The most
important literary production of
this period belongs to the English
and Nordic writers, such as Edgar
Allan Poe, in the gruesome field and
Howard Philip Lovecraft in the
fantastic one, that nowadays are
considered the fathers of this
genre.
Today the horror
literature is contaminated by other
kinds of production for example
fantasy and splatter.
Among the current
writers one of the most famous is
Stephen King, who made a lot of
best-sellers.
Another branch of
the Horror story, and related to the
ghost stories, is the gothic
literature, that developed in the 17th
century: it is featured by hollow
settings, and the characters are
often evil creatures.
The temporal
setting is the Moyen age, a
dark period in history; the places
in which the stories are set are old
castles and monasteries. The main
themes are death, evil and ancient
prophecies.
This literature
of the 18th and 19th
centuries gave birth to the gothic
revival, with settings in Catholic
countries, because the major writers
of this stories are mainly English
and so there is the clash between
the power of the Pope and the
protestant religion. The English
population, in fact, believes that
the protection of a king and of a
parliament is more important than
the one of a religious power.
Some easy
instruments to scary the reader are
the darkness (the light doesn’t
frighten), big and powerful objects,
such as cannons, chains and lofty
buildings; there are very strong
noises and the missing of precision
in the definition of the characters.
What a ghost
is…
The main
character of the ghost stories is
the ghost of course (also called
phantom). It is a legendary being.
It is an incorporeal presence that
is usually covered by a bed sheet or
without head; it produces a clang
noise and sometimes is surrounded by
a strange light. Other features are
the appearances during the night and
in isolate places (castles or
roads).
The word ghost in
the past meant supernatural
appearance, but now it has the
meaning of the appearance of a died
person. This is an element that can
be found in all the cultures.
The most famous
example is the ghost of
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, that moves
all the plot.
Other typical
elements
In a horror
story, but sometimes either in a
ghost story, there are other typical
characters, such as zombies,
vampires and people victims of
ancient curses; there are also
demons and wicked animals, elements
of black magic, and in the modern
stories can be also found alien
creatures.
Regarding the
films belonging to this category,
the most important ones are
Dracula, The mummy,
Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hide,
that derive from the gothic
literature.
By Marco Dellutri and Alessio Sale,
Karima and Amina
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