Haunting the Imagination: The Haunted House as a Figure of Dark Space in American Culture
In contemporary America the haunted house appears regularly as a figure in literature, film, and tourism. The increasing popularity of the haunted house is in direct correlation with the disintegration of the home as a refuge from the harsh elements of the world. The mass media populates society wit...
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| Format: | Others |
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BYU ScholarsArchive
2012
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| Online Access: | https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3531 https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4530&context=etd |
| Summary: | In contemporary America the haunted house appears regularly as a figure in literature, film, and tourism. The increasing popularity of the haunted house is in direct correlation with the disintegration of the home as a refuge from the harsh elements of the world. The mass media populates society with dark images and subjects, portraying America as a dark place to live. Americans create fictional narratives of terror and violence as a means of coping with their own modern horrors. Their horrors are psychologically displaced within these narratives. The haunted house is therefore a manifestation of contemporary anxieties surrounding the dissolution of the home, a symbol of the infusion of terror and violence into domestic space. |
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