- Supernatural fiction
Supernatural fiction is a classification of
literature used to describefiction exploiting or requiring as plot devices or themes some contradictions of the commonplacenatural world andmaterialist assumptions about it. It includes the traditionalghost story , and was propelled to prominence inEurope by theeighteenth century explosion of popularGothic fiction .Fact|date=August 2008Most but not all supernatural fiction would be taken to be
genre fiction ;Fact|date=August 2008 "The Turn of the Screw " byHenry James is an example of a work ofliterary fiction that is also largely concerned with supernatural fiction elements, making play of the possibility that they are psychological at root, but requiring the option that they are not for effect.A great deal of supernatural fiction was written in the century up to 1950Fact|date=August 2008, then lost popularity.Fact|date=August 2008 The newer
genre s ofhorror fiction andfantasy fiction , growing out of some of the basic propositions andgeneric convention s, to a certain extent replaced it.Some examples of the genre include:
*
Shirley Jackson 's "The Haunting of Hill House "
*Richard Matheson 's "Hell House"
*Stephen King 's "Bag of Bones " and "The Shining "
*M. R. James 's "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary "
*Sheridan Le Fanu 's "In a Glass Darkly "Supernatural fiction continues to be a staple of
comic book andgraphic novel writing, and the basis forfilm .References
Further reading
*"The Supernatural in Fiction" (1952)
Peter Penzoldt
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