Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds

by Leo Braudy

Overview

An award-winning scholar and author charts four hundred years of monsters and how they reflect the culture that created them

Leo Braudy, a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, has won accolades for revealing the complex and constantly shifting history behind seemingly unchanging ideas of fame, war, and masculinity.
 
Continuing his interest in the history of emotion, this book explores how fear has been shaped into images of monsters and monstrosity. From the Protestant Reformation to contemporary horror films and fiction, he explores four major types: the monster from nature (King Kong), the created monster (Frankenstein), the monster from within (Mr. Hyde), and the monster from the past (Dracula). Drawing upon deep historical and literary research, Braudy discusses the lasting presence of fearful imaginings in an age of scientific progress, viewing the detective genre as a rational riposte to the irrational world of the monstrous. Haunted is a compelling and incisive work by a writer at the height of his powers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300224726
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	10/25/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Leo Braudy is University Professor and Bing Chair in English and American Literature at the University of Southern California. His many books include The Frenzy of Renown and From Chivalry to Terrorism.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Shaping Fear 1

2 Between Hope and Fear: Horror and Religion 28

3 Terror, Horror, and the Cult of Nature 75

4 Frankenstein, Robots, and Androids: Horror and the Manufactured Monster 110

5 The Detective's Reason 141

6 Jekyll and Hyde: The Monster from Within 179

7 Dracula and the Haunted Present 204

8 Horror in the Age of Visual Reproduction 233

Notes 267

Index 289

Illustrations follow p. 140

Editorial Reviews

What a dizzying array of approaches [Braudy] commands—theological, historical, cultural, aesthetic and psychological. All but the downright molecular. Braudy explores the genuinely creepy and unsettling aspects of the liminal as embodied by a human or humanoid figure…He categorizes his "monsters of modernity" in this way: "the monsters from nature (like King Kong), the created monster (like Frankenstein), the monster from within (like Mr. Hyde) and the monster from the past (like Dracula)." That ought to be enough to get your blood racing. Though these definitions are de facto porous and at times overlapping, Braudy is deft and comprehensive, a veritable Linnaeus of the underworldly oversoul…If this scholar writes densely, he also has a kangaroo capacity for crossing huge distances at a bound, moving with equal zest and confidence among biblical, classical, medieval, Enlightenment and Hollywood figures and conceits.

The New York Times Book Review - Gregory Maguire

Mr. Braudy’s narrative spans centuries, continents and genres high and low, from the Sirens that tempted Odysseus to the demons Sarah Michelle Gellar faced down in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”—Andrew Hazlett, Wall Street Journal

“Braudy is deft and comprehensive, a veritable Linnaeus of the underworldly oversoul. . . . He also has a kangaroo capacity for crossing huge distances at a bound, moving with equal zest and confidence among biblical, classical, medieval, Enlightenment and Hollywood figures and conceits.”—Gregory Maguire, New York Times Book Review

“A worthy book—impeccably researched, fluently written and dispassionate in just the way professional historians admire.”—Gerard DeGroot, Times (UK)

“[Displays] an impressive depth of knowledge. . . . Thanks to the way Braudy has reframed the vast canvas on which stories of horror and terror are depicted, I don’t think I will ever watch a horror movie quite the same way again.”—Jonathan Kirsch, Jewish Journal

“Our fears are quite complicated, and, as Braudy demonstrates, the study of them is necessarily interdisciplinary. . . . Braudy focuses primarily on the convergence of various issues and debates that arose in the realms of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophy, science, psychology, and the arts that have shaped how we imagine the monstrous.”—Adam Golub, American Literary Histor

“The breadth of Braudy’s narrative is simply astounding. Page by page Braudy whisks readers from literary works known only to experts to pop culture media. . . . Haunted displays its author’s sharp intellect coupled with a keen sense of observation that takes in all aspects of human culture.”—Joshua Caleb Smith, Reading Religion

Finalist for the 2016 Bram Stoker Award in the Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction category

From the Publisher

Finalist for the 2016 Bram Stoker Award in the Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction category.

Bram Stoker Award - Bram Stoker Awards

“Mr. Braudy has long been fascinated with our society’s emotional undercurrent . . . In Haunted, he brings his expertise as a cultural archaeologist to bear of the subject of fear . . . Mr. Braudy’s narrative spans centuries, continents and genres high and low, from the Sirens that tempted Odysseus to the demons Sarah Michelle Gellar faced down in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”—Andrew Hazlett, The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal - Andrew Hazlett

“[Displays] an impressive depth of knowledge . .  .thanks to the way Braudy has reframed the vast canvas on which stories of horror and terror are depicted, I don’t think I will ever watch a horror movie quite the same way again.”—Jonathan Kirsch, The Jewish Journal

The Jewish Journal - Jonathan Kirsch

“Mr. Braudy has long been fascinated with our society’s emotional undercurrent . . . In Haunted, he brings his expertise as a cultural archaeologist to bear of the subject of fear . . . Mr. Braudy’s narrative spans centuries, continents and genres high and low, from the Sirens that tempted Odysseus to the demons Sarah Michelle Gellar faced down in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”—Adam Hazlett, The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal - Adam Hazlett

10/01/2016
National Book Award finalist Braudy (English, Univ. of Southern California) continues his examination of the entwining of culture and sentiment. The author of Trying To Be Cool now examines the reflective horror monsters and myths that societies create. He succeeds in illuminating how sociological backgrounds from the past two centuries have given rise to fabled creatures, from Frankenstein and vampires to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and what underlying collective fears they represent. Unlike Terry Breverton's Breverton's Phantasmagoria, Braudy doesn't offer clipped encyclopedic entries but rather a more fluid and chronological discussion of how political, religious, and class struggles are expressed by identifying the "other" through horror, superstitions, and witch hunts. The author avoids interjecting personal opinions, instead sticking to historical facts and citing relevant artistic works from the respective time periods being discussed. VERDICT Braudy's qualified background and scholastic treatment of the topic make this book useful for academic researchers and serious historians, as well as more casual interested readers in pop culture.—Bonnie Parker, Southern Crescent Technical Coll., Thomaston, GA

Library Journal