Thriller Genre Critics.
In the book 'Thrillers', Martin Ruben uses the ideas of a range of critics to define the genre 'thriller', beginning with G K Chesterton.
G K CHESTERTON felt he needed to defend the genre. He determined the style, 'thriller' to be a modern genre, that mainly is set in urban landscapes, he defined it as finding excitement in everyday life. When talking about the genre, he stated it is an attempt to find the "poetry of modern life".
NORTHROP FRYE took Chesterton's critique further. He gave the idea that the hero of a thriller text is often an ordinary person, and we as the audience are happy to believe in the situations due to them being similar to the science fiction genre. He said: "the hero of romance moves in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended.", and that thrillers turn the 'enchanted forest' into the Modern City.
JOHN CAWELTI combined both ideas from Frye and Chesterton. And stated that the thriller genre transforms the city from 'a modern city of commerce, industry, and science into a place of enchantment and mystery. This is achieved by introducing 'The Exotic' into the everyday world.
W H MATTHEWS' work relates to mazes and labyrinths in fiction, he see's it as everything descending into an underground maze full of twists, turns, puzzles and dead-ends. In his opinion, to design a thriller narrative, complex twists and turns need to be added into the equation so that the audience don't predict the ending. He reffered to it as being "a puzzling journey"
PASCAL BONITZER thought that Matthews was describing 'Patial Vision' when he advocates mazes. And he thought that the audience should only see so much of the situation, and it's what the audience doesn't see that is part of the thriller layout.
LARS OLE SAURBERG talks about the two ways in which suspence can be added; Concealment and Protraction. He defines it as deliberately hiding something from the audience, and delaying or protracting an expected outcome.
NOEL CARROLL introduced The Question, Answer model, and felt it was important to create questions in order to keep the audience in suspense until they're answered, to keep them 'gripped', such as "Will the hero survive..?". One factor for creating suspense is a battle against all odds, otherwise known as 'The Probability Factor'. The moral factor also increases suspense, as it may not be morrally 'right' for the hero to survive, becuase of him/her doing things that aren't actually right.
