Suspense

In the composition of his poetry, John Donne subverted the traditional rhetorical conventions which dictated the order of presentation of textual contents in both literary and non-literary discourse. Much of Donne's poetry is based on the organisation of a topic or argument by ...

Through the nightclub sequence, we analyze how, during ten minutes, the building of suspense is made, which never falls and does not lose its intensity at any time, particularly thanks to a very specific type of editing. Also, this suspense is a tool to convey a discourse on society as well as on technology, through the example of the Terminator.

A splash of something huge resounds through the sea-fog. In the stillness of a dark room, some unspeakable evil is making its approach.

This new selection offers the most chilling and unsettling of Hodgson's short fiction, from encounters with abominations at sea to fireside tales of otherworldly forces from his inventive `occult detective' character Carnacki, the ghost finder.

A master of conjuring atmosphere, when the horror inevitably arrives it is delivered with breathtaking pace and the author's unique evocation of overwhelming panic.

This essay considers the aesthetic and cultural importance of the slow, contemplative thriller in contemporary world cinema. While the thriller genre tends to be associated completely with the mainstream—and thus with action-oriented rhythms and Hitchcockian paradigms of suspense—there are alternative tendencies in global art cinema that relish more dilatory time schemes, more minimalist mise en scène, and more meditative atmospheres. Surveying multiple national and transnational contexts, this essay explores how the slow thriller functions as key manifestation of global art cinema’s evolving hybridity and impurity. Looking at films such as Bruno Dumont’s L’humanité (1999) and Lee Chang-dong’s Burning (2018), this essay shows how the slow arthouse thriller stages a dialogue with popular cinema while practicing suspense by other, more pensive means. The fate of the slow thriller in today’s shifting media landscape, in which digital streaming has become the primary locus of film viewing, is also considered. David Lynch’s television series Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) is discussed as a slow, contemplative thriller that renegotiates the place and function of the arthouse theater.

O artigo discute os conceitos de narratividade e suspense (Baroni, 2007) próprios da experiência de leitura dos quadrinhos (Fresnault-Deruelle, 1976) a partir de um ponto de vista negativo: pretende-se contemplar a suspensão do suspense em histórias com fracos níveis de tensão, em trabalhos centrados no cotidiano de seus protagonistas - marcadamente presentes nos quadrinhos alternativos (Hatfield, 2005).

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Drawing from concepts from post classical narrative theory (Baroni, 2007), the following paper seeks to explore the dynamics of suspense proper to the experience of reading comics (Fresnault-Deruelle, 1976), especially in contemporary everyday sto- ries that involve a low narrative tension, like many alternative comics (Hatfield, 2005).

Gilbert 13:2 (October-November 2009): 9.  An essay in the Miscellany of Men feature in the magazine, this one treats of Alfred Hitchcock's life and work, with particular attention to the influence exercised on him by the work of G. K. Chesterton.

In the study of film, Nöel Carroll (2001) coined the term the “paradox of suspense” to refer to a situation in which rewatching a film continues to invoke suspenseful feelings. According to the paradox, the tension associated with anticipation and uncertainty persists even though the spectator definitely knows what will happen (Carroll 2001). Many of the articles on the paradox and suspense examine the narrative events shaping spectator or player knowledge (Branigan 1992; Gerrig 1997; Ortony, Clore, and Collins 1988; Prieto-Pablos 1998; Smuts 2008; Yanal 1996), however, this paper takes a slightly different approach by addressing factors that contribute to the feeling of suspense irrespective of the awareness of specific narrative events. By examining videogames, we also shift the frame of reference from narration to gameplay and the way players prepare for suspenseful events. We argue that videogames require a particular attitude manifest in the gameplay that continues to foster su...

Bu çalı􏰕şmada ele alınan L’heure De La Sortie (Sébastien Marnier, 2018) isimli filmde gerilimin nasıl yaratıldığ􏰓ı ve gerilim duygusuyla toplumsallık arasındaki bağ􏰓lantılar, toplumsal statü ve rol kavramları ekseninde incelenmiş􏰕tir. Çalı􏰕şmada yöntem olarak literatür taraması ve sosyolojik film ele􏰕ştiri yöntemi kullanılmış􏰕tır. Filmlerde; bireylerin, sosyal statü ve rollerini, toplumsal de􏰓ğerler vb meselelerin anla􏰕şılması bağ􏰓lamında sosyolojik film ele􏰕ştirisi yöntemi kullanılmaktadır. Bu yaklaş􏰕ımda filmler, toplumların ve kültürlerin yansımaları olarak görülmektedir. Sosyolojik yaklaş􏰕ımın, filmlere karakterler aracılığ􏰓ıyla yaklaş􏰕tığ􏰓ı ve bu do􏰓ğrultuda filmlerde karakterler üzerinden temaların ve rol modellerin toplumsal özelliklerinin vb. belir- lenmesinin amaçlandğı􏰓ı ifade edilir. Toplumsal ya􏰕şam bu temaları ve karakterleri üretmektedir. Sosyolojik film ele􏰕ştirisi ise bu temalar ve karakterleri toplumsal ba􏰓ğlamında incelemektedir (Özden, 2004, s.153-165). Çalı􏰕manın temel amacı toplum ve sanat arasındaki güçlü ili􏰕kinin ortaya konulmasıdır. Bu anlamda sanat vasıtasıyla yaratılan duygulardan birisi olan gerilimin toplumsal bir meselenin sinema imgeleri ile anlatımında dolaylı olarak nasıl kullanıldı􏰓ğı ortaya çıkarılmaya çalış􏰕ılmış􏰕tır.

Megan y Duncan Richards son gente normal. Él es banquero; ella, agente inmobiliaria. Tienen dos hijas adolescentes y un hijo. Viven en una casa preciosa. Todo indica que sus días de activistas políticos, allá por 1968, han quedado muy atrás. Después de todo, cualquiera que fuera joven en 1968 tiene un pasado activista. Pero Megan y Duncan son distintos. Ellos fueron un poco más lejos. Empujados por una hermosa mujer que se hacía llamar Tania y que

Review of Doug Dorst's 2013 novel "S" (created by J.J. Abrams), which appears in BSJ: The B.S. Johnson Journal, Issue 2.

Link to the publication here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/ed-darlington-hooper-seddon-tew-zouaoui/bsj-the-bs-johnson-journal-2/paperback/product-22374374.html

Ce mémoire de recherche-création cherche à repérer trois figures de mise en scène dans le cinéma des frères Dardenne (la caméra portée à l'épaule, le cadrage restreint, le plan- séquence) et d’identifier en quoi celles-ci sont génératrices d’une tension transnarrative qui garde le spectateur en haleine, lui procure des affects, l'engage dans la narration, le choque ou le bouleverse : bref, lui fait vivre une expérience intense. Par une analyse de la scène d’ouverture de Rosetta, nous décrirons comment la caméra mobile portée à l’épaule exprime l’affolement du personnage éponyme tout en proposant un pôle d’identification spectatoriel inédit. Le Fils sera ensuite étudié afin de cerner comment les frères Dardenne emploient le cadre comme un cache afin de générer une tension narrative dans une logique de réticence informationnelle. L’usage du plan-séquence, que nous suggérons d’interpréter comme une sorte de réalité virtuelle permettant de faire l’expérience de la solidarité sociale, fera également l’objet d’une analyse à partir de son usage dans Deux jours une nuit. En guise de conclusion, nous verrons comment nous nous sommes inspirés de ces trois figures de mise en scène dans Tala, le court-métrage de fiction qui accompagne ce mémoire.

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This research & creation thesis aims to identify three components of the Dardenne brothers' directing style (over-the-shoulder camera, tight framing and long take) and try to describe how they generate a transnarrative tension that captivates the audience, immerses it in the story, shock it or move it : in other words, these components make the viewer go through an intense experience. We will analyze the opening scene of Rosetta to describe how the over- the-shoulder camera visually translates the character's emotions whilst suggesting a new type of spectatorial identification. Le Fils will then be analyzed, hoping to demonstrate how the Dardennes' use of tight framing creates mystery and suspense by discarding narrative information. Finally, Deux jours une nuit will allow us to examine the brothers' use of the long take, which we choose to read as a type of virtual reality that allows the viewer to experience social solidarity. As a conclusion, we will explain how these three directing components have been recuperated in Tala, the short fiction film that makes up the creation part of this thesis.

Joe Hill, one of King's three children, writes thrillers with a softly disquieting supernatural edge. In this case, it is not that soft because we are speaking of three boys becoming men who were and are, have been in one or two word(s) horny stiff lioke a triad or trinity of devils, and all of them three for the same girl. Fascinating, As You Like It, and yet Much Ado For Quite A Lot of Blood. But between th'ese three horny pricks a whole bunch or basket of snakes come up to disrupt the pleasure with hissing sizzling slithering.

This article explores the construction of narrative suspense in Edgar Allan Poe's and Alfred Hitchcock's works. Central to their creations is a dual narrative structure that builds tension by articulating two stories in one. Narratological analyses of Poe's tales and of Hitchcock's thrillers indicate that their suspense does not stem from gothic topoi, but from plots skilfully wrought to manipulate the readers/viewers' attention. The first part of the article introduces the concept of narrative suspense. Next, structural principles defended by Poe and Hitchcock are presented. The last two parts discuss narrative techniques in the works by both authors. Given the authors' influence within their respective media, the analysis has implications for studies of the short story and of the suspense thriller as a narrative genre.

This article examines some of the formal properties, stylistic motifs and thematic preoccupations of classic and contemporary South Korean horror films. As a genre that has enormous box-office appeal and crossover potential for western audiences, horror might seem to be little more than a commercial platform for young film-makers to exploit popular tastes and cash in on derivative stories offering scant insight into the social conditions faced by modern-day Koreans. However, even the most cliché-ridden, shock-filled slasher films and ghost tales reveal the often-contradictory cultural attitudes of a populace that, over the past three generations, has weathered literally divisive transformations at the national and ideological levels. As such, the genre deserves scrutiny as a repository of previously pent-up, suddenly unleashed libidinal energies, consumerist desires and historical traumas , as well as a barometer of public opinion about such issues as class warfare, gender inequality and sexual identity. Specifically, I explore some of the most salient features of Korean horror cinema, including filmmakers' tendency to adopt narrative analepsis -- typically rendered as flashbacks -- in the course of plotting out scenarios that, though far-fetched, are rooted in unsettled (and unsettling) real-world problems. Historical return, I argue, truly is a horrifying prospect, especially for anyone old enough to remember, or to have experienced firsthand, the brutality of a military dictatorship or an ongoing abuse of presidential power resulting in severe rights violations (e.g. the Park Chung-hee [1961–79]) and Chun Doo-hwan [1980–88] administrations). But historical return simply must be dramatized as part of the regurgitative ‘purging’ for which the genre has been singled out by theorists who recognize horror’s socially productive function.

The focus of this final paper is on the analysis of Martin McDonagh’s first non-Irish play called The Pillowman, as well as on the elements of crime fiction genre which are present in the play. Due to the fact that the genre of crime fiction is rather complex and vaguely defined, the emphasis of the first part of this paper is on the description of the development of the genre and its most notable elements. The most relevant elements of crime fiction genre for the play are: embedded story, anticipation, and retroversion. They are mostly used for the creation of the notion of suspense. However, the interesting aspect of this literary work lies in the fact that The Pillowman is also rich with deviations from the crime fiction genre. These deviations are most evident in the subversion of the archetypal roles of crime fiction characters. Furthermore, the treatment of the characters in the play is different from the treatment of typical crime fiction characters because there is no fair-play balance between them. Every character is morally dubious and changes his role throughout the storyline. Overall, the combination of crime fiction elements as well as their deviations is something that makes this play one of Martin McDonagh’s most interesting works.

This study aims to shed light on the role multilingualism plays in Alfred Hitchcock’s films, by examining the different solutions adopted by Italian audiovisual translators to cope with the multilingual situations represented. The comparative analysis carried out between the original versions of the thirteen multilingual films directed by Hitchcock and their Italian dubbed versions has identified three different macro-strategies: first of all, the neutralisation of the different languages present in the original version via dubbing the entire film into Italian. Secondly, the preservation of the different lingua-cultural identities through a combination of dubbing with other screen translation modalities such as contextual translation, and interpretation performed by one of the film’s characters. Finally, a third strategy is the quantitative reduction of the multilingual situations present in the original version of the film, with all the inevitable consequences that this may have on viewers’ suspension of linguistic disbelief. Available at: https://lans.ua.ac.be/index.php/LANS-TTS/article/view/46

The stories " The Fall of the House of Usher " and " A Rose for Emily " have made an important contribution to literature. " The Fall of the House of Usher " presents a story of a family consisting of two siblings who lived together in an isolated house. Similarly, " A Rose for Emily " presents the story of a woman, Emily who lived a mysterious life. There are various themes that can be drawn from the stories. The aim of this paper is to explore the universal theme of the abyss of the unknown in the two stories. Thus, the paper critically delves into the elements of the stories that support the theme. Some of the supporting themes in " The Fall of the House of Usher " include the house, terror, illness and madness, the description of the family, and death. In " A Rose for Emily " , the presented themes are resistance to change, family, death, and alienation. The paper also analyzes the similarities and dissimilarities as presented in the stories with regard to the universal theme. The similarities include families and residences, incest, house, isolation, and the deaths of the characters. The dissimilarities in the stories were in the setting of the stories and suspense.

In After Kubrick: A Filmmaker's Legacy, ed. Jeremi Szaniawski (New York: Bloomsbury, 2020).

This essay explores how Jonathan Glazer, Paul Thomas Anderson, and David Lynch operate within an aesthetic tradition of dread inspired by Stanley Kubrick. I first discuss how Kubrick's 2001 and The Shining make use of a dread-suffused, atmospheric form of suspense. I then show how Glazer's Under the Skin, Anderson's There Will Be Blood, and Lynch's Twin Peaks: The Return borrow and reconfigure this aesthetics of dread in their own audacious experiments that put the viewer into contact with unknown agencies and incline toward a kind of negative sublime.

Coupled with threats from a violent stalker who is upset by her decision to leave her innocent pop idol life in favor of a darker role on a crime television show, Mima’s sense of identity begins to fracture. As people involved in the show’s production are found murdered, Mima begins to question her own innocence, no longer able to keep track of which reality she is in. The boundaries between the digital and the everyday spill into each other. 20 years later, Kon’s film feels prophetic. While the Internet at the time was viewed as this utopian, egalitarian network of communication and information, Kon exposes this new technology’s sinister potential long before we, as a society, came to understand the negatives of social media, the possibility of monstrous identity formation as we increasingly disengage with the real world in favor of a digital artifice.

The aim of the thesis is to provide an overview of three contemporary action films: Dredd 3D, John Wick, and Mad Max: Fury Road, through a so-called "bio-structuralist" approach - combining archetypal criticism, literary Darwinism, and narratology, into a unified, holistic theoretical model.
The thesis is divided in four main parts: (1) an introduction, that gives a rationale for the aim, scope, and the design of the thesis, (2) a theoretical framework, which provides both an overview of the theories and fits them in the general model, (3) a part including the case studies, that puts the theoretical approach to the test, and finally (4) a conclusion that gives a verdict on the feasibility of the model and summarizes the findings. A particular emphasis is put on the monomyth as a story paradigm that all the films in the case studies share, whose combination of a biologically dictated scaffolding, and cultural brickwork, is an excellent testing ground for the theoretical model.
In addition to the attempts of revealing glimpses of our evolved nature in the plots, narrative conventions, cinematography, themes, motivations, settings, and character networks in the films, the thesis attempts to balance the hardliner literary Darwinist stance of the dominance of biology over culture, with an acknowledgement of the existence of cultural transmission and stylistic evolution. Thus, the thesis proposes terminology that differentiates between cultural units totally dominated by biology, partially tied to it, and completely independent of it, albeit spread in ways  reminiscent of biological evolution.
The proposed theoretical model is shown to be a viable alternative to post-structuralist approaches as far as the study of action cinema is concerned, with its ample scope serving as its principal advantage.

From the period that David Herman refers to as classical narratology to the present day, we can observe major shifts in the way plot and narrative sequence are dealt with, giving new insights into the dynamics and indeterminacy of narrative structures. This shift has transformed what used to be considered a symmetrical construction (focusing on the unity of the story shaped by the teller) into a kind of labyrinth in which virtual events become as important as events that have been actually told. Thus, despite a proliferation of epistemologies (reception theory, functionalism, rhetoric, cognitive science, etc.), postclassical narratologies converge by stating that in order to understand the forms and functions of plots, we must take into account the “dialectical interplay between narrative and consciousness” (Herman 2007). On this basis, it is no longer possible to avoid “the analysis of how readers’ decisions contribute to the construction of the narrative world” (Kafalenos 2001). Commenting on a short story of Borges, “The Garden of Forking Path,” I shall distinguish between different ways of dealing with the virtualities of the story. The potential tensions between these perspectives can be seen as challenges that contemporary narratology must face when going beyond the mere description of the internal logic of the fabula.

English:
How are the movie screen and the emotions of the audience linked? And how can we write a history of this connection? This monograph tries to answer these questions by conceptualizing the film historical period of the New Hollywood as a moment of crisis which can neither be reduced to economic processes of adaptation nor to a canon of masterpieces. Rather, the detailed analysis of representative films makes visible the power of cinematic images to affect their viewers, that is: to confront them with the new. The films of the New Hollywood re-gauge the field of the old poetic divisions – as manifest in the classical genre system – and thereby irrevocably change the way moviegoers are affectively involved in the cinema. The book describes a complex interplay between three modes of affectivity – suspense, paranoia, and melancholy – which, each in its own way, entangle viewers in the contradictions of their affective relations with the world. On this theoretical basis the book devises a new conception of film history: as a history of feeling which can be rewritten up unto the present day.

Deutsch:
Woran bindet sich die Emotion des Zuschauers im Kino? Und wie lässt sich eine Geschichte dieser Bindung schreiben? Mit Blick auf diese Fragen konzipiert die Arbeit die filmhistorische Periode des New Hollywood als einen Moment der Krise, der sich weder auf ökonomisch bedingte Anpassungsprozesse noch auf eine Ansammlung von Meisterwerken reduzieren lässt. Vielmehr gelangt in der detaillierten Analyse repräsentativer Filme die Kraft filmischer Bilder in den Blick, ihre Zuschauer zu affizieren: sie mit dem Neuen zu konfrontieren. Die Filme des New Hollywood vermessen das Feld der alten poetischen Einteilungen – wie es sich im klassischen Genresystem manifestiert - radikal neu und verändern dadurch die Art und Weise, wie die Zuschauer im Kino affektiv adressiert werden. Die Arbeit beschreibt ein komplexes Zusammenspiel dreier filmischer Modi von Affektivität – Suspense, Paranoia und Melancholie – welche die Zuschauer auf je besondere Weise in die Widersprüche ihrer emotionalen Weltbezüge verwickeln. Auf dieser theoretischen Grundlage entwirft die Arbeit das Projekt einer Neukonzeption von Filmgeschichte: als eine Geschichte des Fühlens, die sich bis in die Gegenwart neu schreiben lässt.

This paper looks at two bestsellers from the 1890s: George du Maurier's Trilby and Bram Stoker's Dracula. An operational definition of suspense in narrative fiction is provided which attempts to combine an understanding of its cognitive and emotional effects with a repertoire of narrative techniques available to achieve these effects. The model emphasizes the variability of the reader's prior knowledge (in our case, linguistic knowledge) as a factor that turns suspense into a fairly unstable notion. The discussion of the two novels shows that multilingualism and translation are not just things that happen 'after' a suspenseful text and in response to it. Translation and multilingualism may already come into the picture within (source) texts and their fictional universe, potentially serving as a suspense-generating technique. The language gap and attendant problems of comprehension and translation are sometimes highlighted sometimes swept under the representational carpet, depending on the suspense-related needs of the moment. Rhetorical effect always prevails over logical consistency.

This long conversation with Meir Sternberg focuses on some crucial points in narrative theory. Special attention is given, in the first part, to the historical evolution of narrative studies, as well as to the theoretical differences between different paradigms, form Aristotle, through French structuralism, to the present days; in the second part he centers on the explanation of his constructivist ant anti-mimetic model and on the difference with other approaches to narrative studies. Providing two fundamental arguments against what he calls «objectivist approaches», he demonstrates the validity and the theoretical value of some of his most thought-provoking proposals, such as the Proteus Principle and the universals of narrative. Thanks to its explanatory power the interview constitutes a simple introduction to Sternberg’s functional-rhetorical approach and a glimpse at the editorial policy of the journal «Poetics Today».

Suspense as an amalgam constitutes a criterion for addressing the requirements of specific audiences. It therefore plays a role in the entire area of reception aesthetics — the cognitive activity of the recipient, the expectations of the readers, the curiosity of the viewers, their emotions such as fear and hope, and their relationships with the protagonists. At the same time, suspense in antiquity remains an amalgam. And this means that, whereas in the modern world suspense can be used as a criterion to determine how a particular medium (film, novel, advertising) is evaluated, in antiquity the amalgam can be analysed within genres (epic, drama, historiography) but does not easily transform itself into a moral touchstone (the prevailing tendency in literary criticism being ethical and didactic) by which a genre as a whole should be judged.