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Why do audiences thrill to the negative emotions of horror fiction?
There are entire industries dedicated to delivering frights, thrills and gross-outs. So why do audiences line up and pay up in droves to experience horror and disgust – two emotions almost universally thought of as negative? In this interview, Noël Carroll, distinguished professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), dissects why horror fiction gets its hooks so deeply into audiences despite putting them in states of discomfort.
Interviewer: Nigel Warburton
Producer: Kellen Quinn
Editor: Adam D’Arpino
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Earth science and climate
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Biology
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Nature and landscape
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Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
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Food and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
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Art
Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer
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Gender
A filmmaker responds to Lars von Trier’s call for a new muse with a unique application
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Design and fashion
A ceramicist puts her own bawdy spin on the folk language of pottery
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