Abstract
Horror tales have always been told, but not until the 18th century did a horror genre emerge. This study explores the themes, roots and mythological functions of horror tales, tracing the development of a Western symbol - the closed space of the world of reason - through medieval, Renaissance and Baroque texts, and showing how this symbol eventually gave birth to horror fiction in the Age of Reason. Beyond psychoanalytical or socioeconomic explanations, the author proposes an ontological rationale for the genre, defining it as a history of hauntings and relating it to the themes of quest, reality and man's changing relationship to the world and God.
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