Research Paper on:
American Horror Writing and the Influence of British Authors

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
on American literature can be seen in contemporary times as well as throughout the 250 years since the British colonists in North America began thinking of themselves as a different  "kind" of people. However, throughout the latter part of the 19th century, when horror stories began to truly emerge as a unique literary genre, one of the commonalties that existed  between both British and English writers were the constraints of the Victorian Age and its attendant repression. Writers on both sides of the Atlantic understood that there was something deeper  in the human psyche than that which was allowed to be expressed in "proper society." It was possible that, within every person, there lurked a Mr. Hyde, a "tell-tale heart,"  or Victor Frankensteins "creature." Exploring that "other" served as the catalyst for the creation of horror literature and remains at its core in the 21st century. The First "Breathless  Horror" The student working on this project can use Mary Wollstonecraft Shelleys "Frankenstein -- The Modern Prometheus" (originally published in 1818) as a good example of how and when  horror literature actually reached the mainstream reading public. Gehring comments: "Of the genres of the fantastic (horror, science fiction, and fantasy), horror has generated the most serious study.  Fright master Stephen King credits this to the acclaimed literary trilogy of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevensons Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Bram Stokers Dracula. King calls them  the foundation for all scary stories" (68). Shelley should be understood as one of the foremothers of the horror genre and that much that followed her work was an  attempt to copy it. Admittedly, there were British horror writers before Shelley, most notably Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe but it was Shellys "Frankenstein" that can best be defined as