Ordinary Horror - by Andrea Capra (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

What is horror? Setting aside the implausible circumstances typical of the horror genre, Capra investigates what he terms "ordinary horror"--the horror that haunts our world, and that we may encounter firsthand. Drawing from ordinary language philosophy and phenomenology, he reframes horror as a common human experience tied to a sense of forced powerlessness--the shattering moment when our control over a given situation, and our very sense of reality, unravels. By tracing this experience across texts beyond the horror genre, Capra reveals its significance for our time.

Centering on modern Italian literature, Ordinary Horror shows a tradition not typically associated with horror to be rife with it. To this end, Capra emphasizes the centrality of the experience in canonical authors, as seen, for instance, in Giacomo Leopardi's pages on existential suffering, Primo Levi's writings on Auschwitz, and Elena Ferrante's descriptions of sexual violence. Literature, Capra argues, can convey horror's experiential magnitude through what he calls the "aesthetics of deformation"--scenes when otherwise realistic texts depart from verisimilitude and embrace a more disquieting style. Weaving together aesthetics and phenomenology, Capra shows that just as horror may rupture the fabric of everyday life, so too may it rupture the fabric of a literary text.

Review Quotes

"This book is a Russian doll full of surprises. Discovery follows discovery. Literary criticism turns into philosophy, philosophy into psychology, psychology into sociology, and back to the outset. Given truths collapse, certainties crash. Could there be a better way to talk about ordinary horror?" --Gabriele Pedullà, Scuola Normale Superiore

"Whoever travels with Capra through the galaxy of horror experiences how a literary study transforms into a philosophical treatise. By interpreting human existence as the arena of an inevitable Being-towards-horror, Capra demonstrates how scholarly contemplation can become an exercise of immersion into the dark sublime." --Peter Sloterdijk, University of Art and Design Karlsruhe

About the Author

Andrea Capra is Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at NYU.