"Walkin' with a Dead Man over My Shoulder": A Study of Judeo-Christian Horror Literature

In “‘Walkin’ with a Dead Man over My Shoulder': A Study of Judeo-Christian Horror Literature,” I study the qualitative role of Judaism or Christianity in four texts: Matthew Lewis’s The Monk (1796), William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist (1971), Stephen King’s Carrie (1974), and S. Anky’s Yiddish play The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds (first performed in 1920). The project is divided into three chapters, with one on religion in relation to the plot, one on the effects of parenting and religious influence on children, and the last on how faith shapes characters. The horror genre’s origins are in religious beliefs, rituals, teachings, and stories, so it is intriguing to see how the genre has progressed over time in relation to its roots.