Knowra Supernatural fiction Supernatural fiction Fiction in which events or beings exceed the laws of nature as ordinarily understood, often involving ghosts, magic, divine forces, or otherworldly entities.
Ghost story : A narrative centered on the appearance or influence of the dead. Ghosts are among supernatural fiction’s most enduring figures.
Folklore : Traditional stories, beliefs, and customs transmitted within communities. Folklore supplies supernatural beings and motifs that fiction repeatedly adapts.
The Turn of the Screw : Henry James’s 1898 novella about a governess who sees apparitions at a country estate. Its uncertain apparitions make readers question whether events are supernatural or psychological.
Horror fiction : Fiction designed to evoke fear, dread, or revulsion. Supernatural fiction often uses supernatural threats for horror, but need not aim to frighten.
Death in literature : The representation of dying, the dead, and mortality in literary works. Ghosts and revenants make death a continuing presence rather than a final boundary.
Haunting : A recurring supernatural presence associated with a place, person, or unresolved event. Hauntings turn supernatural presence into a persistent narrative problem.
Gothic fiction : A literary mode using terror, decay, mystery, and threatening settings. Gothic fiction established influential settings and techniques for supernatural terror.
Dracula : Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel about a Transylvanian vampire who threatens Victorian England. Stoker turns the vampire into a modern literary figure through documents and multiple narrators.
Science fiction : Fiction that explores imagined possibilities grounded in science or technology. Science fiction typically explains extraordinary events through natural laws or speculative science.
Religious horror : Horror that draws on religious beliefs, institutions, or supernatural forces. Stories of demons and divine powers can dramatize conflicts over faith and evil.
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