| Contents |
Introduction : Red, white, and black -- In the hands of god and the devil -- New country, old bones -- When America's rivers ran with blood -- Gaslights and shadows -- In the shadow of the jet age's gleam -- Revolution and chainsaws -- Weird tales -- Cards from a haunted tarot deck. |
| Abstract |
"Americans are held captive by horror stories. They flicker on the screen of a darkened movie theater and are shared around the campfire. They blare out in tabloid true crime headlines and in the worried voices of local new anchors. They are consumed, virally, on the phones in our pockets. Like the victims in any slasher movie worth its salt, we can't escape the thrall of scary stories. In American Scary, noted cultural historian Jeremy Dauber pulls from his hugely popular Columbia University class on the history of horror to take the reader to the startling origins of American fear. Dauber draws a captivating through line that ties historical influences ranging from the Salem witch trials and enslaved-person narratives directly to the body of work we more closely associate with horror today: the weird tales of H. P. Lovecraft, the lingering fiction of Shirley Jackson, the disquieting films of Alfred Hitchcock, the up-all-night stories of Stephen King, and the gripping critiques of Jordan Peele. From "The Tell-Tale Heart" to M3gan, we begin to see why the horror genre is the perfect prism through which to view America's past and present. With the dexterous weave of insight and style that have made him one of America's leading chroniclers of popular culture, Dauber makes the haunting case that horror reveals the true depths of the American mind." -- Jacket flap. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 424-455) and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Dauber, Jeremy, 1973- American scary First edition. Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2024 9781643755977 |
| Genre/form | Literary criticism. |
| Genre/form | Film criticism. |
| Genre/form | Critiques littéraires. |
| Genre/form | Critiques cinématographiques. |
| LCCN | 2024027916 |
| ISBN | 9781643753560 hardcover |
| ISBN | 1643753568 hardcover |
| ISBN | electronic book |
