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8 Culture, Evil, and Horror

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  • Paul Santilli

Abstract

. This chapter develops a concept of aesthetic and existential horror and suggests its importance for understanding modern and postmodern culture. It makes three distinct claims. First, the experience of horror signifies a breakdown in the symbolic categories and valuations of a culture. Second, this experience has ontological significance because in horror the human is exposed to the naked fact of being. This latter point is derived from Heidegger's comments on anxiety and Emmanuel Levinas's notion of the “il y a” or “there is.” A third claim follows from these two, namely, that horror is distinct from evil. Evil is defined within a cultural matrix; horror is the undefined other of a culture. Evil represents the negation of being; horror shows the sickening presence of being as being. The essay concludes with a reflection on the possibility of a postmodern ethics that takes responsibility for the “horrors of being” generated by globalization.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Santilli, 2007. "8 Culture, Evil, and Horror," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(1), pages 173-193, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:66:y:2007:i:1:p:173-193
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00503.x
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