The 200-Year Debate over Tasteful Horror Fiction || A History of Horror Short Story Anthologies

The creative choice between pleasant shudders and unpleasant ones has divided horror writers for more than 200 years. It's divided readers and literary critics as well, and the horror genre's popularity has waxed and waned as cultural conventions and aesthetic values have changed over time. Short stories were the prevailing format for most of the genre's history, and broad trends can be traced through the many short fiction anthologies published over the past 100+ years, some focused on older works and others on contemporary ones. This video is an overview of that anthology history. 0:53 Why short fiction? 2:43 Definitional difficulties 4:11 Horror vs. terror 7:13 A taxonomy of horror fiction 10:33 Cyclical evolution of horror fiction 15:14 The anthology battles 25:06 From demure to depraved 29:53 Modern anthologies 32:24 The hidden roles of women 35:40 Essential anthologies My other videos referenced in this one: Why Short Story Anthologies Are the Best Intro to SF -    • Why Short Story Anthologies Are the Best I...   Essential SF Short Story Anthologies -    • The Best Science Fiction Short Story Antho...   The History of Arkham House Publishers -    • The Greatest Small Publisher of Horror, Sc...   ------------ I've launched a Substack (thelibraryladder.substack.com) to supplement the videos I make here on YouTube. I'll be posting essays, reviews, resources and other thoughts that don’t fit within the scope or time constraints of my channel. I'll also use it to host live discussions and other activities intended to add value to the topics I discuss here on YouTube. Film credits: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) Dracula (1931) The Mummy (1932) The Raven (1935) Cat People (1942) The Uninvited (1944) The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) The Mole People (1956) Horror of Dracula (1958) Eyes Without a Face (1960) 13 Ghosts (1960) Horror Hotel (1960) Night Tide (1961) The Innocents (1961) Carnival of Souls (1962) The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) The Haunting (1963) The Birds (1963) Maniac (1963) The Masque of the Red Death (1964) The Devil's Own (1966) How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) Night of the Lepus (1972) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) The Shining (1980) Pet Sematary (1989) Misery (1990) Matinee (1993) Saw (2004) I Saw the TV Glow (2024) #horrorstories #horror #booktube