Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction that originated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, distinguished by its move away from, or substantial reimagining of, conventional supernatural horror antagonists such as ghosts, vampires and werewolves. Pioneering authors of the form include William Hope Hodgson, M. R. James, Clark Ashton Smith and H. P. Lovecraft, and scholars such as China Mieville have pointed to the recurring image of the tentacle, absent from traditional European gothic monsters, as symbolic of the tradition.
Facts
Place of OriginUnited States, where Edgar Allan Poe is regarded as the pioneering author of the form. 1 Notable ExampleH. P. Lovecraft, whose stories for the pulp magazine Weird Tales made him the writer most closely identified with the subgenre. 1 Defining TraitFiction evoking an atmosphere of dread toward unknown outer forces suspending nature's fixed laws, per H. P. Lovecraft's own definition of the true weird tale. 1 Defining Trait FAQs
Which magazine is most closely tied to weird fiction?
Weird Tales (1923 to 1954).
The American pulp magazine Weird Tales, which published many such stories in the United States from March 1923 to September 1954. Its editor Farnsworth Wright often used the term weird fiction for the material the magazine published, so the writers who wrote for it are closely identified with the subgenre, especially H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber and Robert Bloch.
Connections
Encompasses Form
Features Author
Source China Miéville (Wikipedia)
Source H. P. Lovecraft (Wikipedia)
Form Of Genre
Subgenre Of
Source Weird Fiction (Wikipedia)
Subgenres
Source Ghost Story (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Weird Fiction (Wikipedia)tier 2
Sources
1. Weird Fiction (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationHistory section, quoting Lovecraft's Supernatural Horror in Literature
The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain-a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.
History section, on the pulp magazine Weird Tales
The writers who wrote for the magazine Weird Tales are thus closely identified with the weird fiction subgenre, especially H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber and Robert Bloch.
History section, first sentence
Edgar Allan Poe is often regarded as the pioneering author of weird fiction.
Lead paragraph, defining sentence
Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction originating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Subgenre Of: Speculative Fiction, Lead paragraph
is a subgenre of speculative fiction
View the Source China Miéville (Wikipedia)
Features Author: China Miéville, English Wikipedia article, lead section [in-genre]Quote, Features Author: China Miéville, English Wikipedia article, lead section [in-genre]
He often describes his work as "weird fiction"
Ghost Story (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Subgenres: Ghost Story, Lead paragraph, sentence naming the parent genreQuote, Subgenres: Ghost Story, Lead paragraph, sentence naming the parent genre
It is a form of supernatural fiction and specifically of weird fiction, and is often a horror story.
H. P. Lovecraft (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: H. P. Lovecraft, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: H. P. Lovecraft, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Lovecraftian horror, dark fantasy, weird fiction, horror fiction, mythopoeia, science fiction, fantasy
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