Weird fiction
A speculative subgenre blending horror, fantasy, and science fiction.
Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, often replacing traditional horror antagonists like ghosts and vampires with nontraditional monsters, such as those bearing tentacles. It aims to evoke both awe and fear, creating a sense of the numinous. The term has seen a resurgence since the 1980s under the label New Weird.
Quick Facts
- Origins
- Late 19th and early 20th centuries
- Key early writer
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Notable magazine
- Weird Tales (March 1923 to September 1954)
- Resurgence label
- New Weird (1980s–21st century)
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and China Miéville have suggested that weird fiction has seen a recent resurgence termed the New Weird.
- The anthology The New Weird contains tales fitting this category and discussion of the phenomenon.
Definitions
John Clute describes weird fiction as a term used loosely for fantasy, supernatural fiction, and horror tales that contain transgressive material. China Miéville defines it as a dark fantastic often featuring nontraditional alien monsters. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock notes that old weird fiction uses elements of horror, science fiction, and fantasy to highlight human insignificance within a larger, often malign universe. Jeff and Ann VanderMeer view it as a mode of literature rather than a genre, typically appearing within horror fiction.
History
Edgar Allan Poe is often regarded as the pioneering author of weird fiction, identified by Lovecraft as the first writer of a distinct supernatural type different from traditional Gothic literature. Sheridan Le Fanu is also seen as an early writer in the subgenre. In the nineteenth century, literary critics used the term 'weird' to describe supernatural fiction; an 1859 article in the Scottish Review praised Poe, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Walter Scott for their 'power of weird imagination,' and an 1898 review of Dracula in The Freeman's Journal called the novel 'wild and weird. Weinstock suggests a period of 'Old Weird Fiction' from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, while S. T. Joshi and Miéville argue for a 'Haute Weird' period between 1880 and 1940, featuring authors like Arthur Machen and Clark Ashton Smith. The American pulp magazine Weird Tales, edited by Farnsworth Wright, published such stories from March 1923 to September 1954, with writers like H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, and Robert Bloch closely associated with the subgenre. Other pulp magazines included Strange Tales and Unknown Worlds. Lovecraft popularized the term in his essays, including 'Supernatural Horror in Literature.'
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