Author: Thomas A. Gaines
Noël Carroll revolutionized horror theory with his seminal book The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart (1990), offering a cognitive and analytical approach to the genre. Unlike psychoanalytic or ideological readings, Carroll focused on how horror works structurally to evoke emotional responses—especially fear and disgust—through a combination of narrative cues and conceptual clarity.
Central to Carroll’s theory is the notion of the "art-horror" monster: a creature that is both threatening and impure, violating ontological boundaries (like being dead-yet-alive, human-yet-animal). These monsters are cognitively unsettling, provoking a unique mixture of curiosity and revulsion. For Carroll, the horror genre thrives on such monstrous violations that are not only scary but also intellectually engaging.
He argued that horror films are enjoyable because they offer a safe space to explore taboo fears and because the narrative usually provides epistemic satisfaction: the mystery is revealed, the monster is understood, even if not fully conquered. His work thus shifted the discussion from repressed content to the active structure of storytelling and viewer cognition.
Carroll's framework paved the way for horror studies to engage with analytic philosophy, logic, and genre-form conventions—bridging gaps between aesthetics and popular culture.
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