The Religious Affordance of Supernatural Horror Fiction

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that some supernatural horror fiction has religious affordance – that is, provides ideas that readers can draw upon to build their own religious outlook. In this regard, supernatural horror fiction is an important but previously overlooked part of lived religion. It also demonstrates that the afforded ideas are entwined with the supernatural experiences that the stories describe and looks at rhetorical tropes that dispose readers to believe in those experiences (at least while reading the story), and by extension to entertain the credibility of the religious ideas, as well. It demonstrates the important role that ambiguity, a central feature of supernatural horror fiction since the 1830s, plays in persuading readers to believe in the supernatural experiences and the religious ideas. Two case studies are used to make these arguments: M. R. James’s “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” (1904) and Stephen King’s Revival (2014).