Absence of Women in Horror

[Dark Muse]

There is something which has recently come to my attention, or at least something that I have for the first time really taken the time to reflect upon and realize.

There seems to be a great depart of female horror writers. It seems women just don't writer horror, or if they do they go grossly unrecognized for it.

I am an avid consumer of horror as many of you know by now, and in the various collections of horror stories I have I really cannot recall any of them including stories by women writers, and I certainly cannot think of a horror novel I have read which was written by a woman.

That is unless you count Anne Rice but I personally do not fully consider her works to be truly "horror"

This is something which greatly interests me and disheartens me both as a female reader of horror as well as a writer of horror. The vast majority of the short stories I have written have been horror and it is the genre that attracts me the most in writing.

Does anyone know any really good horror written by women? ?

[JBI]

Hmm, can't think of anything, but I think, if you haven't read it, Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber may be of interest to you.

[Stargazer86]

I have an anthology "Great Irish Tales of Horror". I haven't read all of these, but the ones I've read are pretty entertaining. THey're all short stories by Irish authors. Here are some of the ones by women:

The Portrait of Roisin Dhu by Dorothy Macardle
THe Happy Autumn Fields by Elizabeth Bowen
Encounter at Night by Mary Frances McHugh
Arachnophobia by Catherine Brophy


Not sure if this is what you're looking for....

[Dark Muse]

Hmm, can't think of anything, but I think, if you haven't read it, Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber may be of interest to you.

The Title does intrigue, I will look into that

[Dark Muse]

I have an anthology "Great Irish Tales of Horror". I haven't read all of these, but the ones I've read are pretty entertaining. THey're all short stories by Irish authors. Here are some of the ones by women:

The Portrait of Roisin Dhu by Dorothy Macardle
THe Happy Autumn Fields by Elizabeth Bowen
Encounter at Night by Mary Frances McHugh
Arachnophobia by Catherine Brophy


Not sure if this is what you're looking for....

Irish Tales of Horror, that sounds good. Two of my favorite things together

I have enjoyed works I have read by Bowen before, I will have to keep an eye out for some of those

[Janine]

How about "The Mysteries of Udolpho" by Ann Ward Radcliffe
and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"?

[Dark Muse]

I am not sure if I would consider that to be truly horror. I was on the fence about Frankenstein if it classifys as horror.

[JBI]

Frankenstein is so dated, I find. Really, one can't help hoping that Frankenstein, with his speaking always in the passive, would finally get what was awaiting him the whole time, and having himself torn limb from limb - but no - I don't know, perhaps people were easier to scare back then, or perhaps the book was never scary - I think it is one text that has never been popular, but has had a sense of popular culture build around it.I think that is one book, where people recognize about a 20 second clip from that ancient movie of it, where the creature goes "Master, master", instead of actually understanding anything.

As for Udolpho, that would be more romance than anything. All those Gothic things are hard to classify as Horror.

[Dark Muse]

Yes I agree there is something of a different between the Gothic and the Horror but perhpas in a way modern day horror has emergered from the Gothic.

[JBI]

Yes I agree there is something of a different between the Gothic and the Horror but perhpas in a way modern day horror has emergered from the Gothic.

I think it is our understanding of setting. I think by most of us being in the city, we have a sense of danger associated with the outside in a city scape, with its too many sounds and sirens, yet at the same time, have a sort of fear of the countryside, with its lack of noises. I think that creates our sort of concept of horrific setting, so that a farm becomes a haunted place, since if someone is killed, there is nobody around to hear, whereas a castle doesn't carry much horror in it, and we aren't moved by that sense of mystery into the ancient undetected history of the location.

[Dark Muse]

Yes that is true, because castles are for the most part irrelevant today, they would not strike fear in the heart of most people. Horror has evolved around the changing of times and setting, as well as growing of new fears which have come to emerge.

Though it is quite interesting, I had recently read The Yellow Wallpaper, and while it is only misinterpret as horror, and such was not Gilman's true intent in writing of the story, the opening scene of the story sets up perfectly the basis of the modern day haunted house seen in so much of our current horror.

[mono]

. . . and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"?
Ah, you beat me to it! I felt surprised to see this novel mentioned somewhat later in the thread.
Personally, I find a lot of those paperback romance novellettes, written mostly by women, horror, but not quite in the classical sense.
Many short stories by Flannery O'Connor could definitely get called horror, at least in a psychological sense; a lot of it filters the gore of human bodies, and such, but she has written some relatively unsettling stories worth reading, both for the reason of this thread and for the enthrallment of the imagination.

[mortalterror]

I believe Jo March was a popular female American horror story writer. She lived and wrote in Massachusetts about the same time as the more famous Louisa May Alcott.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Talking about eighteenth/nineteenth century gothic novels I don't think the intention of them was ever to scare people, at least not one of the main reasons, they were mainly written as a sort of escapist romance fantasy. Having said that there is a lot going off beneath the surface of these texts and they are worth studying/reading in their own right, but certainly not to induce much fear today.

(Also technically speaking female gothic novels should really be termed "terror" and not "horror" due to the fact that they represent explained events, but that is just my pedagogical nitpick of the week.)

I think your best bet for horror is in short stories as I find most horror/terror stories very much hit and miss and at least with a collection of shorts you don’t waste much time on the dross. I have a collection of horror written by various people called something like “Great Vampire Stories”, in fact most of them aren’t vampire stories and most of them could hardly be termed “great” at all, but there are some good little bits and pieces in there, mostly rubbish though it has to be said.

Also is this pick on Frankenstein week here at Lit Net? For me this is a damn fine little book wonderfully written. :p

[Drkshadow03]

If you're looking for some contemporary female horror writers why not check out the previous winners of the Bram Stoker Award for horror: Link (http://dpsinfo.com/awardweb/stokers/).

Not a ton of female writers, but I noticed a few female authors who won best novel, best short story, best first novel, etc. as I went through the years.

[Delta40]

fyi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_horror_fiction_writers

[Dark Muse]

If you're looking for some contemporary female horror writers why not check out the previous winners of the Bram Stoker Award for horror: Link (http://dpsinfo.com/awardweb/stokers/).

Not a ton of female writers, but I noticed a few female authors who won best novel, best short story, best first novel, etc. as I went through the years.

I will have to look into that

[Drkshadow03]

I will have to look into that

Names that immediately come to mind: Poppy Z. Brite and Tanith Lee.

I've read a short story or two by Tanith Lee. I remember liking one and feeling ambivalent about the other. However, I know other genre readers who swear by Tanith Lee. Maybe one of these days I'll have to give her a serious try.

[J Kelley]

Shirley Jackson?

[Calidore]

Nancy Collins' Sunglasses After Dark was excellent and is now considered a classic. I haven't read the sequels.

Also, while I've never read her myself, I've heard Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is pretty good.

[dfloyd]

Edna Allan Poe?

[Lokasenna]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Susan Hill - I think she is one of the most effective horror writers out there.

I remember being very impressed with The Woman in Black - I found it a captivating and gripping read. Her evocation of sheer terror was excellent, and her ability to render normal situations unheimlich is, when she's at her best, on a par with Henry James.