The Philosophy of Horror, Or, Paradoxes of the Heart by Carroll Noël

Author:Carroll, Noël [NOËL CARROLL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2011-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Erotetic Narration

One hypothesis, which has proved to be very powerful in studying the logic of popular narratives, is the idea that scenes, situations, and events that appear earlier in the order of exposition in a story are related to later scenes, situations, and events in the story, as questions are related to answers. Call this erotetic narration. Such narration, which is at the core of popular narration, proceeds by generating a series of questions that the plot then goes on to answer.

In a mystery story, for example, a murder early on generates a question— whodunit?—to which later scenes contribute towards answering in the form of clues and which the final or penultimate scene—the summing up by the detective—conclusively answers. Or, in V.C.Andrews’s novel Flowers in the Attic, the harsh treatment and imprisonment of the children, after they arrive at their grandparents’ home, evokes the question for what wrong they are being punished, which is answered (it’s incest) by the end of the story.

Likewise, the hijacking of some nuclear devices at the beginning of a spy thriller posits questions about who stole the bombs and for what purposes. A great deal of the plot will be preoccupied with answering these questions. And once the generally appalling and unscrupulous use planned for the weaponry is identified, the further, altogether pressing question arises as to whether it can be thwarted.

The internal structures of the multi-function horror plots reviewed in the preceding section can be analyzed readily on the model of the question/ answer model. The onset of the monster raises the question of whether it will be discovered. Its discovery leads either directly to the question of whether it can be destroyed, or, if the discoverers need outside support, it leads to the question of whether they will be able to convince the authorities of the existence of the monster and of the danger it poses.

Similarly, the preparation for the overreacher’s experiment prompts the audience to anticipate whether or not it will succeed. The experiment phase of the plot first answers that question positively, but then goes on to note complications—usually in the form of innocent victims or other mishaps. These untoward consequences, then, lead to the question of whether and how the monster can be defeated and the experiment ultimately laid to rest. Thus, the basic narrative connective—the rhetorical bond between plot movements—in the horror story (as in other popular narratives) is the question/answer format.

Moreover, the erotetic linkage in popular fictions not only connects the large plot movements, but also tends to provide the rhetorical bond for smaller units of narration. One scene may give rise to the next on the question/answer model. In Chapter Twenty of Stephen King’s (non-horror novel) Misery, the captive writer, Paul, secretly wheels himself into the kitchen, where he steals a knife. This raises the question of whether his captor, Annie, will realize that he’s gotten out of his room and whether he will be able to kill her. In short order, it is revealed that she’s on to him, and has retrieved her kitchen knife.

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