Weird fiction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Weird fiction is speculative literature written in the late 19th and early 20th century. Popular writers of weird tales included H. P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, Arthur Machen, and M. R. James. Weird fiction is distinguished from horror and fantasy in that it predates the niche marketing of genre fiction. Because generic conventions had not been established, weird tales often blend the supernatural, mythical, and even scientific. British writers, for example, published their work in mainstream literary magazines even after American pulp magazines became popular.[1] Although chiefly a historical description, weird fiction has also been used to refer to contemporary slipstream fiction that blends horror, fantasy, and science fiction.

Contents

[edit] History of the Genre

H. P. Lovecraft adopted the term from Sheridan Le Fanu and popularized it in his essays. In "Supernatural Horror in Literature," Lovecraft defines the genre:

The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain--a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.

The pulp magazine, Weird Tales, published many such stories in the United States from March 1923 to September 1954.

S. T. Joshi describes several subdivisions of the weird tale: supernatural horror (or fantastique, the ghost story, quasi science fiction, fantasy, and ambiguous horror fiction.[2]

Although Lovecraft was one of the few early 20th-century writers to describe their work as weird fiction,[3] the term has enjoyed a contemporary revival in New Weird fiction. China Miéville often uses "weird fiction" as a way to describe his quasi science fiction and unconventional fantasy. Many horror writers have situated themselves within the tradition of weird fiction, including Clive Barker, who describes his fiction as fantastique, and Ramsey Campbell, whose work is deeply influenced by Lovecraft.

[edit] Weird Fiction Authors

The following writers' work has been characterized as weird fiction or weird tales:

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Joshi, S.T. The Weird Tale (Austin: U of Texas P, 1990), p. 5
  2. ^ , Ibid, pp. 7-10
  3. ^ Ibid, p. 1.
  4. ^ Joshi, p. 12
  5. ^ Joshi, p. 42
  6. ^ Joshi, p. 87
  7. ^ Joshi, p. 133
  8. ^ Joshi, p. 143
  9. ^ Joshi, p. 168
  10. ^ Joshi, p. 231
  11. ^ Joshi, p. 231
  12. ^ Joshi, p. 231
  13. ^ Joshi, p. 231
  14. ^ Joshi, p. 231
  15. ^ Joshi, p. 231
  16. ^ Joshi, p. 231
  17. ^ Joshi, p. 231
  18. ^ Joshi, p. 231
  19. ^ Joshi, p. 231
  20. ^ Joshi, p. 231

[edit] External Links

[edit] See Also