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ToolsJancovich, Mark and Brown, Shane (2022) 'Most stories of this type': Genre, horror and mystery in the silent cinema. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 42 (2). pp. 168-190. ISSN 0143-9685
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Abstract
An examination of ‘horror’ in the silent period, one of many genres that is only supposed to have emerged in the 1930s. Through an analysis of press coverage, the article examines a clear vocabulary that was used to describe a specific ‘type’ of film at the time. It also illustrates that ‘horror’ was explicitly used as a generic noun to name this ‘type’ but that, given that ‘horror’ was also a negative term used in censorship campaigns, this term was often avoided, except when ‘horror’ was clearly understood as a ‘hot’ genre. Consequently, this genre was more commonly described as ‘mystery,’ a term that included both ‘horror’ and ‘detective stories,’ terms that were largely seen to be indistinguishable in the period, when both were understood as featuring investigations into the ‘mysterious,’ ‘strange’ and ‘eerie.’ In other words, ‘mystery’ staged a confrontation between rationality and irrationality and in a way that negotiated the perceived transitions from Victorianism to Modernity at the time.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | communication,history,visual arts and performing arts ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3315 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Art, Media and American Studies (former - to 2024) |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Film, Television and Media |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Nov 2020 01:09 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Jul 2025 23:59 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/77577 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/01439685.2021.1922036 |
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