Youth Horror Television and the Question of Fear

Edited by Kyle Brett and Ethan Robles

Focusing on programs from the 1970s to the early 2000s, this volume explores televised youth horror as a distinctive genre that affords children productive experiences of fear. Led by intrepid teenage investigators and storytellers, series such as Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and Are You Afraid of the Dark? show how young people can effectively confront the terrifying, alienating, and disruptive aspects of human existence. The contributors analyze how televised youth horror is uniquely positioned to encourage young viewers to interrogate—and often reimagine—constructs of normativity. Approaching the home as a particularly dynamic viewing space for young audiences, this book attests to the power of televised horror as a domain that enables children to explore larger questions about justice, human identity, and the preconceptions of the adult world.

ISBN

978-1-61146-341-5

Year

2024

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Reviews

Reader, beware! The kids who grew up sitting too close to the television or peeking through their fingers to watch Goosebumps and Watership Down have grown up, and they are here to mine their childhood nightmares to frighteningly satisfying ends. Youth Horror Television and the Question of Fear unites the most exciting new and established voices in the field to give long overdue attention to this fascinating area of study.
— Catherine Lester, University of Birmingham

Youth Horror Television and the Question of Fear elevates the unmediated yet communal experience of watching TV to a source of both joyful reminiscence and satisfying critical intervention. It recognizes how ‘televised youth horror’ spawns horror-loving adults, exposing them to the haunting powers of narrative from a young age. This is a neglected area of contemporary horror’s origin story.
— Laura R. Kremmel, Niagara University

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