Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to American Horror
- The Cambridge Companion to American Horror
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Histories
- 1 Slavery
- 2 Capitalism
- 3 Religion and Spirituality
- 4 Settlement and Imperialism
- 5 Censorship and State Regulation
- 6 Schlock, Kitsch, and Camp
- Part II Genres
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
- References
3 - Religion and Spirituality
from Part I - Histories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 July 2022
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to American Horror
- The Cambridge Companion to American Horror
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Histories
- 1 Slavery
- 2 Capitalism
- 3 Religion and Spirituality
- 4 Settlement and Imperialism
- 5 Censorship and State Regulation
- 6 Schlock, Kitsch, and Camp
- Part II Genres
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
- References
Summary
This chapter explores the intersection between American horror and religion and how our understanding can benefit from an approach that recognizes how both subjects wrestle with what happens when human experience goes sideways, how people attempt to understand things beyond their experience, and how they address questions pertaining to why they are here and where they think they are going. While both clearly confront such key questions of human existence, religion frequently addresses them within expectations tied to core doctrines, beliefs, and practices, while horror more often reaches beyond those limits. And yet there are moments in which both kinds of texts overlap in that they share an interest in the kinds of overwhelming questions people ask in times of concern or crisis. This chapter explores several of those moments in a survey that ranges from American Puritan literature to Spiritualism, and then to the rise of modern Pentecostalism.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to American Horror , pp. 45 - 59Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
References
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