Horror Fiction

Question 1

Horror fiction

Answer 1

Gloomy atmosphere conveys impending doom

Characters experience fear/terror

Plot is a mystery that challenges reality, forcing one to question the evidence of their senses

Appeals to one’s imagination by exposing one’s deepest fears and limits of rationality

Question 2

Criticisms

Answer 2

• Poorly written
• Appealing to the lower class
• No representing real life
• Contributing to social and cultural disintegration

Question 3

Topology of the psyche

Answer 3

Id: impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche - pleasure principle

Ego: aims to satisfy the id, but also relate back to reality

Super-ego: conscience:

Question 4

Denial

Answer 4

Blocking impulses from awareness

Question 5

Repression

Answer 5

inability to remember traumatic events

Question 6

Asceticism

Answer 6

Renunciation of needs

Question 7

Displacement

Answer 7

redirecting impulses onto substitutes

Question 8

Projection

Answer 8

Projecting impulses onto others

Question 9

Introjection

Answer 9

Adopting another’s characteristics

Question 10

Regression

Answer 10

Exhibiting childish/primitive behaviours

Question 11

Rationalization

Answer 11

Cognitive distortion of facts

Question 12

Sublimation

Answer 12

Transforming unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable forms

Question 13

Dreams

Answer 13

Dreams are attempts by the unconscious to resolve a mental conflict

The unconscious communicates this information in a disguised form

True meaning of dreams only revealed through analysis

Question 14

Dreams and writing

Answer 14

Writing expresses the unconscious desires/fears of the writer - like dreams

Allows readers to access their unconscious desires/fears in a disguised form

May be potentially therapeutic to readers

Question 15

The uncanny

Answer 15

Something concealed/hidden that has become strange

Question 16

Freudian ‘uncanny’ concepts

Answer 16

Repressed complexes

• Castration anxiety
• Doubles
• Repetition
• Womb-fantasies

Primitive forms of thought

• Omnipotence
• Evil eye
• Return of the dead

Question 17

Psychoanalytic method

Answer 17

• Identify the uncanny elements
• Interpret the significance (how they represent repressed complexes/primitive thought)
• Consider why readers derive please

Question 18

Benjamin Rush on insanity

Answer 18

Insanity is based on

• The passions
• The intellect
• The moral faculties

The moral principles of the mind are depraved and perverted; the individual cannot conduct himself with decency

Question 19

Mirror stage

Answer 19

Occurs when a child is able to see itself as a unified whole in a mirror