Horror and terror: Difference between revisions

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Psychology
- Horror and terror

The distinction between horror and terror is a standard literary and psychological concept applied especially to Gothic and horror fiction. Horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually follows a frightening sight, sound, or other experience. By contrast, terror is traditionally described as the feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience.

Noël Carroll also defined terror as a combination of horror and revulsion.

Literary Gothic

The distinction between terror and horror was first characterized by the Gothic writer Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823), horror being more related to being shocked or scared (being horrified) at an awful realization or a deeply unpleasant occurrence, while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful. Radcliffe considered that terror is characterized by "obscurity" or indeterminacy in its treatment of potentially horrible events, something which leads to the sublime. She states in an essay published posthumously in 1826, "On the Supernatural in Poetry," that terror "expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life." Horror, in contrast, "freezes and nearly annihilates them" with its unambiguous displays of atrocity. She continues: "I apprehend that neither Shakespeare nor Milton by their fictions, nor Mr. Burke by his reasoning, anywhere looked to positive horror as a source of the sublime, though they all agree that terror is a very high one; and where lies the great difference between horror and terror, but in uncertainty and obscurity, that accompany the first, respecting the dreaded evil."

According to Devendra Varma in "The Gothic Flame" (1966):

The difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse.

Horror fiction

Horror is a genre of film and literature that uses shocking images or scenarios to convey stories and elicit reactions, often including jump scares to unsettle viewers. Typically, these films feature a suspenseful buildup leading to a terrifying revelation, frequently enhanced by eerie music.

In his non-fiction book Danse Macabre, Stephen King stresses how horror tales normally chart the outbreak of madness or the terrible within an everyday setting. He also elaborates on the twin themes of terror and horror, adding a third element which he refers to as "revulsion. " He describes terror as "the finest element" of the three, and the one he strives hardest to maintain in his own writing. Citing many examples, he defines "terror" as the suspenseful moment in horror before the actual monster is revealed. "Horror," King writes, is that moment at which one sees the creature or aberration that causes the terror or suspense, a "shock value. " King finally compares "revulsion" with the gag-reflex, a bottom-level, cheap gimmick which he admits he often resorts to in his own fiction if necessary, confessing:

I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud.

Psychoanalytic views

Freud likened the experience of horror to that of the uncanny.

Georges Bataille viewed horror as similar to ecstasy, both transcending daily life and allowing a departure from rational social awareness. Meanwhile, Julia Kristeva perceived horror as a trigger for primitive, infantile, and demoniacal experiences that embody raw femininity.

Horror, helplessness and trauma

The paradox of pleasure derived from horror films and literature can be elucidated, in part, as a consequence of relief from authentic horrors through engaging in horror as a form of play. Additionally, it serves as a safe avenue for adults to revisit the paralyzing sensations of infantile helplessness.

Helplessness is also a factor in the overwhelming experience of real horror in psychological trauma. Re-experiencing the trauma may be a helpful way to overcome it.

See also [ Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions ]

Emotions