|
For a class, needing to find a few relevant links to different sub-genres of the Ghost Story.
I mean, I understand there's a difference between Dickens' ghosts of Christmas xxxx and the generic malevolent floaty incorporeal things, but I can't for the life of me find any sort of resource which gets into dividing that niche into even tinier distinctions.
Anybody know of any really good starting points? If I could find a point of entry on these discussions/essays/etc I could take it from there, but I'm simply stuck. Google turns out to be a giant PITA no matter how many negation operators I use on "real life" or "haunting" etc.
|
For a class, needing to find a few relevant links to different sub-genres of the Ghost Story.
I mean, I understand there's a difference between Dickens' ghosts of Christmas xxxx and the generic malevolent floaty incorporeal things, but I can't for the life of me find any sort of resource which gets into dividing that niche into even tinier distinctions.
Hrm...no clue. I know you've got the more modern subgenres of "they don't know they are ghosts (The Others, Sixth Sense)" and "are there ghosts or are they just crazy (The Orphanage, Marianne)".
Here is the Haunted Index from TVTropes.com.
That should have the majority of the ghost story motifs in popular horror fiction, film and television.
That said, this list is insufficient for analyzing folklore and older literature. For that purpose, you'll need to consult any of the various Folklore Motif Indexes which you will find in the reference room of any good university library.
For example, if you just look at TVtropes, you won't find stories like "The Stolen Liver, because even though they are common folktales that are told again and again, they're way too grisly for primetime television.
Here, for example, is the famous anthropology S. Thompson Motif Index. It's filled with synopses of all sorts of stories, including a large section on the dead.
Have fun with your research.
That said, this list is insufficient for analyzing folklore and older literature. For that purpose, you'll need to consult any of the various Folklore Motif Indexes which you will find in the reference room of any good university library.
+1 to that.
Honestly what you are looking for would be to use some sort of peer reviewed literary criticism or lit analysis journal which many many are now available through university and search engines built just for them for use by academics.
But let's look at some common ones you would see at TV tropes:
Poltergeist
Banshee
Vengful ghost (Peter Straub's Ghost Story, The Wraith/Crow)
Hungry ghost (Chinese Myths)
Warning ghost (hamlet's father)
Ghostly Animals (The Grey King by Susan Cooper)
helpful ghosts (the push your car off the railroad tracks)
the lonely hitchhiker
The searcher (usually a railroad man who is looking for his head)
The spectral teacher (twin peaks, ghost masters)
The possessing
The need something ( Ghost with Patrick Swayze)
Thats all I got off the top of my head.