Skräcken inom och utom oss : En studie över skräckgenrens potential som läs- och värdegrundsfrämjande verktyg i skolan

Sammanfattning: This essay aims to show how the horror genre can be utilized to make reading feel relevant for studentstoday but also as foundation for teaching core values in the classroom. To conduct this study, I relied onAnders Öhmans five categories of what constitutes the horror genre but also Louise M. Rosenblattstheory of the transactionall relationship between the reader and the literary work of fiction. The literaryworks analyzed were chosen to highlight the universal aspects of literary story-telling. The works offiction used in this study are Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley, The Haunting Of Hill House (1959)by Shirley Jackson and The Outsider (2018) by Stephen King. In the analysis, I examine how the centralthemes found relates to Öhman’s five categories of what constitutes the horror genre. Thereafter I discusshow these themes can be used to make reading feel relevant for students today but also as a way ofteaching core values in the classroom. This essay show that the horror genres tendencies to depictextranous forces that threatnes the ordinary order; usage of border characters and feelings of exclusioncan be usefull tools to make students more emotionally engaged in reading. It’s also clear that the horrorgenre provides a foundation for discussing abstract and universal concepts which in turn can guide themtowards a better understanding of themselves and the world around them.