Abstract
Jack Fennell’s latest book Rough Beasts: The Monstrous in Irish Fiction 1800–2000 sets out by telling the reader that it will run counter to key arguments in the Gothic that suggest gothic fiction and historical causality are connected. For Fennell, although horror may feature in the gothic, the two are not ‘perfectly synonymous’ because ‘horror ends history’ (p. 1). This has been Fennell’s position since he published Irish Science Fiction back in 2014. Here, he expands this thesis by suggesting it is the monster ‘who actually does the history-ending work’. Fennell does include historical context, as well as a significant social, cultural and historical argument for the historical time frame. His conclusion is also helpful in building his definition of horror. He suggests that the emotional state of the reader is irrelevant, and if the protagonist(s) ‘react to their situation with both immediate fear and existential terror’, then the work is in the horror genre (p. 241).
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