On Ghost Stories 1: What is a ghost story?

What makes a story a ghost story? It is not simply a story with a ghost in it. The extent and limitations of this category. The “point” of ghost stories.

On Ghost Stories 2: The evolution of the ghost story

Ghost stories are traditional, but in modern times they emerged largely from the gothic genre, which was part of the romantic rebellion against the age of reason near the end of the 1700s. From there, the ghost story developed in its characteristic elements, in the golden age of ghost stories, which began in the Victorian Age and ended with the World Wars of the 20th century (with a period of rebirth between the wars).

On Ghost Stories 3: Ghost stories and the horror genre

The ghost story is the simplest type of horror story, based on the uncanny and the immaterial, barely discerned phenomenon with some personal attributes. Beyond the ghost lies the more corporeal supernatural entities, such as the werewolf, vampire, zombie, etc. The position of the ghost in the horror genre is singular, in that it is—apart from the simple odd behavior of physical objects—the minimal degree of the supernatural.

On Ghost Stories 4: How a ghost story works

The ghost story works through the emotion of horror, which differs from simple terror (in most dictionaries) by including as well disgust. An example of the difference can be seen in the terror induced by a large predatory cat, verus the horror one might have of snakes. Horror is extreme fear and disgust or loathing.

On Ghost Stories 5: What make a great ghost story?

Very few ghost stories are “great.” What do such stories have in common? First, they linger—they disturb the reader days and even years after, whenever the phenomenon of the story is recalled. Second, they say something fundamental about life and experience.