Editor’s Introduction

Human life always has had its share of horrors, both real and imaginary, but since the creation and then dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945, the apocalypse has become less of an imaginary idea and more of a reality–if the world does not end through a nuclear holocaust, it may end through a series of dire climactic events. How are we reimagining and reembodying horror as our lived reality changes? What does the increasing prevalence of the imaginative symbols of horror–zombies, monsters, and the like, in popular culture and academic discourse–tell us about how we are responding to horrors, both concrete and imagined?