On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror
E764960
"On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror" is an influential 18th-century critical essay that explores why people take aesthetic pleasure in frightening and terrifying experiences, particularly in literature and art.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror | 1 |
| On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8898783 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror Context triple: [Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose, notableEssay, On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror]
-
A.
The Analysis of Sensations
The Analysis of Sensations is Ernst Mach’s influential philosophical and scientific treatise that examines perception and experience to argue for an empiricist, anti-metaphysical view of the physical world.
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B.
On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts
On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts is a satirical essay by Thomas De Quincey that mockingly treats murder as an aesthetic subject, blending dark humor with literary criticism.
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C.
The Terrors
The Terrors is the nickname of Dundee United F.C., a professional football club based in Dundee, Scotland, known for its passionate support and distinctive tangerine kit.
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D.
On Grief and Reason
On Grief and Reason is a collection of essays by Nobel Prize–winning poet Joseph Brodsky that reflects on literature, history, and the human condition with his characteristic intellectual rigor and moral insight.
-
E.
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Pit and the Pendulum is a Gothic short story that follows a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition facing psychological terror and a gruesome mechanical execution device.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror Target entity description: "On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror" is an influential 18th-century critical essay that explores why people take aesthetic pleasure in frightening and terrifying experiences, particularly in literature and art.
-
A.
The Analysis of Sensations
The Analysis of Sensations is Ernst Mach’s influential philosophical and scientific treatise that examines perception and experience to argue for an empiricist, anti-metaphysical view of the physical world.
-
B.
On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts
On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts is a satirical essay by Thomas De Quincey that mockingly treats murder as an aesthetic subject, blending dark humor with literary criticism.
-
C.
The Terrors
The Terrors is the nickname of Dundee United F.C., a professional football club based in Dundee, Scotland, known for its passionate support and distinctive tangerine kit.
-
D.
On Grief and Reason
On Grief and Reason is a collection of essays by Nobel Prize–winning poet Joseph Brodsky that reflects on literature, history, and the human condition with his characteristic intellectual rigor and moral insight.
-
E.
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Pit and the Pendulum is a Gothic short story that follows a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition facing psychological terror and a gruesome mechanical execution device.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
aesthetic theory text
ⓘ
literary essay ⓘ |
| addresses | readers of Gothic and terror fiction ⓘ |
| author | Anna Laetitia Barbauld ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Great Britain ⓘ |
| discusses |
aesthetic distance
ⓘ
emotional response to fiction ⓘ imagination ⓘ pleasure in frightening experiences ⓘ terror in art ⓘ terror in literature ⓘ |
| field |
aesthetics
ⓘ
literary theory ⓘ philosophy of art ⓘ |
| form | prose essay ⓘ |
| genre |
aesthetic criticism
ⓘ
literary criticism ⓘ |
| hasAuthorGender | female ⓘ |
| historicalContext |
late 18th-century British culture
ⓘ
rise of Gothic fiction ⓘ |
| influenced |
Gothic literary criticism
ⓘ
linked to:
Gothic literature
later Romantic-era criticism ⓘ theory of the sublime and beautiful ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
ⓘ
Edmund Burke ⓘ Enlightenment aesthetics ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | 18th-century literature ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
aesthetic pleasure in fear
ⓘ
aesthetics ⓘ psychology of fear ⓘ sublime ⓘ terror in literature ⓘ |
| modeOfPublication | print ⓘ |
| movement | Enlightenment ⓘ |
| notableFor |
account of why fear can be pleasurable
ⓘ
contribution to theories of the sublime ⓘ early analysis of Gothic terror ⓘ |
| publicationCentury | 18th century ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
curiosity
ⓘ
emotional catharsis ⓘ safety in fiction ⓘ suspense ⓘ |
| relatedWorkAuthor | Edmund Burke ⓘ |
| relatedWorkGenre | Gothic novel ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror Description of subject: "On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror" is an influential 18th-century critical essay that explores why people take aesthetic pleasure in frightening and terrifying experiences, particularly in literature and art.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror