Horror: A Very Short Introduction

Horror: A Very Short Introduction argues that horror, while it is often understood as a disreputable popular cultural form, is in fact a major component of human civilization and culture. It is central to many of our foundational ideas, in art, literature, religion, and ritual. Horror is an important part of what it means to be human, and an important means of understanding the world. There are a number of major recurring themes within horror: monsters, the occult and the supernatural, the body, the mind, and scientific horrors and fears. What does horror look like now, since the millennium? Its preoccupations turn out very much to be our own: corporate control, the online life and its discontents, racial tensions, environmental fears, and the world under plague conditions.