Abstract
A generic hybrid of mystery and horror, Michael Slade’s Ghoul (1987) is a highly violent, often graphically disgusting novel, refusing to shy away from nauseating scenes or grotesque images. My article uses Ghoul to explore a major aesthetic paradox that numerous philosophers of art have grappled with – the paradox of horror, that is, why we enjoy horror fiction despite its manifest unpleasantness. The article uses Slade’s novel to demonstrate the weaknesses of several pre-existing theories, going on to argue against their totalizing approaches to the genre and aesthetics in favour of a particularist theory. The article then formulates a specific theory of the paradox of horror as it relates to Ghoul specifically, building on recent scholarship on disgust by Carolyn Korsmeyer and earlier work by Susan Feagin, Berys Gaut and others. In doing so it questions the aesthetic methodologies often applied to horror fiction and revisits discussion of the paradox of horror, examining the subject from a new, specific perspective centred around the aesthetic possibilities of disgust.
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