Fabulist Horror
Explore books, themes, and recommendations in Fabulist Horror.
What is the Fabulist Horror Subgenre?
To understand what fabulist horror is, we first need to have a clear definition of the term fabulist. Traditionally, fabulist was defined as having something to do with fables, which are short tales generally featuring animals that are used to teach a moral lesson. More recently, other definitions have cropped up. Some say that fabulist represents a departure from the archetypes of the genre in style, tone, or setting. Still others use the term New Wave Fabulist to describe works that blend what is known as genre fiction: science fiction, fantasy, and, of course, horror with literary fiction. This blend is similar to slipstream, and put another way, is similar to magic realism for the horror genre.
That is not to say that these definitions do not have some overlap. New Wave Fabulist horror would very definitely differ from traditional horror in style and tone, particularly, in that this is where the elements of literary fiction would frequently be found. Similarly, stories animals or anthropomorphic animals and definitely moral tales could be found in other versions of fabulist horror. The key to this type of horror is to bring elements of the strange, supernatural, and scary into the world, and make it appear normal.
Generally, this is done by not giving the supernatural elements any explanation, as if they were simply part of everyday life. This allows the reader to drop their guard until the horror creeps onto the page, often before the reader realizes that it has happened.
That being said, when you go to look for examples of fabulist horror, they are pretty tricky to find. A search for horror fables will bring up a few results, most common among them being the movie Mama and H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. A search of magic realism in horror yields more results, and these, contain some or all of the elements of each definition.
Fabulist Horror Characteristics
Level of Characterization: Due to the literary influences of this subgenre, Fabulist horror will have high levels of characterization with character development emphasized over action and terror.
Level of Plot: The level of plot in Fabulist horror will also be high due to the literary influences of the subgenre.
Level of Supernatural: In this subgenre, the level of supernatural will be moderate to high, as supernatural elements are generally the source of the scares in Fabulist horror.
Level of Scary: The scares in Fabulist horror are deceptively high. These are definitely creeping horrors as opposed to in your face scares, but they will sneak up on the reader, whisper-quiet until they reveal themselves.
Level of Violence: The level of violence in this subgenre is moderate to low as Fabulist horror lends itself more toward the creepy and atmospheric than the graphic and gory.
Typical Setting: There is no typical setting to Fabulist horror, although alienation and isolation seems to be a theme that runs through the subgenre. Typical settings will reflect that isolation.
Related Horror Subgenres
Due to their genre-blending elements, cross-genre horror and weird fiction are the most closely related subgenres to Fabulist horror. Additionally, gothic horror is frequently related to this subgenre in that both contain strong literary elements. Similarly dark fiction, with its literary elements, could also be easily related to Fabulist horror