Stephen King and the Uncanny Imaginary

Stephen King and the Uncanny Imaginary

Author: Erin Mercer

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-08-25

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 100093019X

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Offering an insightful examination of Stephen King’s fiction, this book utilises a psychoanalytical approach drawing on Freud’s theory of the uncanny. It demonstrates how entrenched King’s work is in a literary tradition influenced by psychoanalytic theory, as well as the ways that King evades and amends Freud. Such an approach positions King’s texts not simply as objects of interpretation that might yield latent meaning, but as producers of meaning. King can certainly be read through the lens of the uncanny, but this book also aims to consider the uncanny through the lens of King. Organised around specific elements of the uncanny that can be found in King’s fiction, this book explores the themes of death and the return of the dead, monstrosity, telepathy, inanimate objects becoming menacingly animate, and spooky children. Popular texts are considered, such as IT, The Shining, and Pet Sematary, as well as less discussed work, including The Institute, The Regulators and Desperation. The book’s central argument is that King’s uncanny motifs offer insightful commentary on what is repressed in contemporary culture and insist on the failure of scientific rationalism to explain the world. King’s uncanny imaginary rejects dualistic notions of an experiencing self in an inert physical world and insists that psychic experience is bound up with the environmental. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary and popular literature, gothic and horror studies, and cultural studies.


Book Synopsis Stephen King and the Uncanny Imaginary by : Erin Mercer

Download or read book Stephen King and the Uncanny Imaginary written by Erin Mercer and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-08-25 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering an insightful examination of Stephen King’s fiction, this book utilises a psychoanalytical approach drawing on Freud’s theory of the uncanny. It demonstrates how entrenched King’s work is in a literary tradition influenced by psychoanalytic theory, as well as the ways that King evades and amends Freud. Such an approach positions King’s texts not simply as objects of interpretation that might yield latent meaning, but as producers of meaning. King can certainly be read through the lens of the uncanny, but this book also aims to consider the uncanny through the lens of King. Organised around specific elements of the uncanny that can be found in King’s fiction, this book explores the themes of death and the return of the dead, monstrosity, telepathy, inanimate objects becoming menacingly animate, and spooky children. Popular texts are considered, such as IT, The Shining, and Pet Sematary, as well as less discussed work, including The Institute, The Regulators and Desperation. The book’s central argument is that King’s uncanny motifs offer insightful commentary on what is repressed in contemporary culture and insist on the failure of scientific rationalism to explain the world. King’s uncanny imaginary rejects dualistic notions of an experiencing self in an inert physical world and insists that psychic experience is bound up with the environmental. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary and popular literature, gothic and horror studies, and cultural studies.

Postmodern Reading of Contemporary East African Fiction

Postmodern Reading of Contemporary East African Fiction

Author: Andrew Nyongesa

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-02-29

Total Pages: 101

ISBN-13: 100385480X

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This book likens writers’ incessant focus on racism, negative ethnicity, patriarchy and social stratification in societies to a naïve physician who prescribes analgesics to treat symptoms while the underlying cause of the disease seethes in the blood. In the same way, persons who consistently blame their reckless conduct and shabbiness miss the point if they do not transform the actual cause of the problem: the mind. While most literary scholars problematise gender disparities, racial and political othering, oppression, environment degradation, education matters, poor parenting and governance, they tend to disregard the root cause: modernism. This book finds a gap in this grey area to address the authentic cause of the symptoms that most literary writers and scholars treat. Pertinent modernist tenets such as bureaucracy, the nation state, systematisation and rationality, and dualism are at the heart of racism, corruption and other aforementioned symptoms. It is the contention of this study that postmodernism offers a comprehensive understanding of modernism to mitigate its effects on society.


Book Synopsis Postmodern Reading of Contemporary East African Fiction by : Andrew Nyongesa

Download or read book Postmodern Reading of Contemporary East African Fiction written by Andrew Nyongesa and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-02-29 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book likens writers’ incessant focus on racism, negative ethnicity, patriarchy and social stratification in societies to a naïve physician who prescribes analgesics to treat symptoms while the underlying cause of the disease seethes in the blood. In the same way, persons who consistently blame their reckless conduct and shabbiness miss the point if they do not transform the actual cause of the problem: the mind. While most literary scholars problematise gender disparities, racial and political othering, oppression, environment degradation, education matters, poor parenting and governance, they tend to disregard the root cause: modernism. This book finds a gap in this grey area to address the authentic cause of the symptoms that most literary writers and scholars treat. Pertinent modernist tenets such as bureaucracy, the nation state, systematisation and rationality, and dualism are at the heart of racism, corruption and other aforementioned symptoms. It is the contention of this study that postmodernism offers a comprehensive understanding of modernism to mitigate its effects on society.

The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction, 2 Volumes

The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction, 2 Volumes

Author: Patrick O'Donnell

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2022-03-01

Total Pages: 1607

ISBN-13: 1119431719

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Fresh perspectives and eye-opening discussions of contemporary American fiction In The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction: 1980-2020, a team of distinguished scholars delivers a focused and in-depth collection of essays on some of the most significant and influential authors and literary subjects of the last four decades. Cutting-edge entries from established and new voices discuss subjects as varied as multiculturalism, contemporary regionalisms, realism after poststructuralism, indigenous narratives, globalism, and big data in the context of American fiction from the last 40 years. The Encyclopedia provides an overview of American fiction at the turn of the millennium as well as a vision of what may come. It perfectly balances analysis, summary, and critique for an illuminating treatment of the subject matter. This collection also includes: An exciting mix of established and emerging contributors from around the world discussing central and cutting-edge topics in American fiction studies Focused, critical explorations of authors and subjects of critical importance to American fiction Topics that reflect the energies and tendencies of contemporary American fiction from the forty years between 1980 and 2020 The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction: 1980-2020 is a must-have resource for undergraduate and graduate students of American literature, English, creative writing, and fiction studies. It will also earn a place in the libraries of scholars seeking an authoritative array of contributions on both established and newer authors of contemporary fiction.


Book Synopsis The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction, 2 Volumes by : Patrick O'Donnell

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction, 2 Volumes written by Patrick O'Donnell and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 1607 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fresh perspectives and eye-opening discussions of contemporary American fiction In The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction: 1980-2020, a team of distinguished scholars delivers a focused and in-depth collection of essays on some of the most significant and influential authors and literary subjects of the last four decades. Cutting-edge entries from established and new voices discuss subjects as varied as multiculturalism, contemporary regionalisms, realism after poststructuralism, indigenous narratives, globalism, and big data in the context of American fiction from the last 40 years. The Encyclopedia provides an overview of American fiction at the turn of the millennium as well as a vision of what may come. It perfectly balances analysis, summary, and critique for an illuminating treatment of the subject matter. This collection also includes: An exciting mix of established and emerging contributors from around the world discussing central and cutting-edge topics in American fiction studies Focused, critical explorations of authors and subjects of critical importance to American fiction Topics that reflect the energies and tendencies of contemporary American fiction from the forty years between 1980 and 2020 The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction: 1980-2020 is a must-have resource for undergraduate and graduate students of American literature, English, creative writing, and fiction studies. It will also earn a place in the libraries of scholars seeking an authoritative array of contributions on both established and newer authors of contemporary fiction.

Care and Crisis in Chinua Achebe's Novels

Care and Crisis in Chinua Achebe's Novels

Author: Amechi Nicholas Akwanya

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-04-16

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1040017754

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This book is a new study of Chinua Achebe’s novels in which they are read as works of literary art, as literary works are studied and discussed within the discipline of literary studies and criticism. A central concept, care, which is a humane value, is found to run in the texts, and is the crux of the test that the major characters are subjected to. What challenges them as things to be taken care of through concern may be a human being in a dire circumstance, as with Ikemefuna (Things Fall Apart), the human group itself exposed to famine in what should be harvest time (Arrow of God), or the state which needs to be brought to its proper being, as Heidegger would say (No Longer at Ease and A Man of the People), or human suffering calling to be relieved (Anthills of the Savannah). The novels are all in the tragic mode, because intervention is under some kind of interdiction.


Book Synopsis Care and Crisis in Chinua Achebe's Novels by : Amechi Nicholas Akwanya

Download or read book Care and Crisis in Chinua Achebe's Novels written by Amechi Nicholas Akwanya and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-16 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a new study of Chinua Achebe’s novels in which they are read as works of literary art, as literary works are studied and discussed within the discipline of literary studies and criticism. A central concept, care, which is a humane value, is found to run in the texts, and is the crux of the test that the major characters are subjected to. What challenges them as things to be taken care of through concern may be a human being in a dire circumstance, as with Ikemefuna (Things Fall Apart), the human group itself exposed to famine in what should be harvest time (Arrow of God), or the state which needs to be brought to its proper being, as Heidegger would say (No Longer at Ease and A Man of the People), or human suffering calling to be relieved (Anthills of the Savannah). The novels are all in the tragic mode, because intervention is under some kind of interdiction.

The Politics of Modern Indian Language Literature

The Politics of Modern Indian Language Literature

Author: MK Raghavendra

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-04-16

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1040017622

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Indian literature is produced in a wealth of languages but there is an asymmetry in the exposure the writing gets, which owes partly to the politics of translation into English. This book represents the first comprehensive political scrutiny of the concerns and attitudes of Indian language literature after 1947 to cover such a wide range, including voices from the cultural margins of the nation like Kashmiri and Manipuri, that of women alongside those of minority and marginalised communities. In examining the politics of the writing especially in relation to concerns like nationhood, caste, tradition and modernity, postcoloniality, gender issues and religious conflict, the book goes beyond the declared ideology of each writer to get at covert significations pointing to widely shared but often unacknowledged biases. The book is deeply analytical but lucid and jargon-free and, to those unfamiliar with the writers, it introduces a new keenness into Indian literary criticism to make its objects exciting.


Book Synopsis The Politics of Modern Indian Language Literature by : MK Raghavendra

Download or read book The Politics of Modern Indian Language Literature written by MK Raghavendra and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-16 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Indian literature is produced in a wealth of languages but there is an asymmetry in the exposure the writing gets, which owes partly to the politics of translation into English. This book represents the first comprehensive political scrutiny of the concerns and attitudes of Indian language literature after 1947 to cover such a wide range, including voices from the cultural margins of the nation like Kashmiri and Manipuri, that of women alongside those of minority and marginalised communities. In examining the politics of the writing especially in relation to concerns like nationhood, caste, tradition and modernity, postcoloniality, gender issues and religious conflict, the book goes beyond the declared ideology of each writer to get at covert significations pointing to widely shared but often unacknowledged biases. The book is deeply analytical but lucid and jargon-free and, to those unfamiliar with the writers, it introduces a new keenness into Indian literary criticism to make its objects exciting.

Critical Approaches to Sjón

Critical Approaches to Sjón

Author: Linda Badley

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-08-20

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1040086152

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Critical Approaches to Sjón: North of the Sun is the first English-language book-length study of the works of the Icelandic contemporary poet Sjón (Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson, b. 1962), who is considered by some to be Iceland’s most distinctive and multifaceted contemporary author. This collection of essays introduces readers to Sjón’s rich body of writing and its transmedial and stylistic range, cultural breadth, thematic diversity, and intellectual depth. Essays in the volume have been brought together from around the world and cover Sjóns's beginnings as a neo-surrealist performance artist and poet (translated into over 20 languages), his career as a novelist (translated into over 30 languages), and his collaborations with translators, singer-songwriters, film directors, and other writers. Approaches range from the narratological, historical, ethical, epistemological, and mythological to theoretical methodologies such as thing theory, queer theory, disability studies, and ecocriticism.


Book Synopsis Critical Approaches to Sjón by : Linda Badley

Download or read book Critical Approaches to Sjón written by Linda Badley and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-08-20 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Critical Approaches to Sjón: North of the Sun is the first English-language book-length study of the works of the Icelandic contemporary poet Sjón (Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson, b. 1962), who is considered by some to be Iceland’s most distinctive and multifaceted contemporary author. This collection of essays introduces readers to Sjón’s rich body of writing and its transmedial and stylistic range, cultural breadth, thematic diversity, and intellectual depth. Essays in the volume have been brought together from around the world and cover Sjóns's beginnings as a neo-surrealist performance artist and poet (translated into over 20 languages), his career as a novelist (translated into over 30 languages), and his collaborations with translators, singer-songwriters, film directors, and other writers. Approaches range from the narratological, historical, ethical, epistemological, and mythological to theoretical methodologies such as thing theory, queer theory, disability studies, and ecocriticism.

Progressive Intertextual Practice In Modern And Contemporary Literature

Progressive Intertextual Practice In Modern And Contemporary Literature

Author: Katherine Ebury

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-05-07

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 1040024599

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This edited volume aims to reposition intertextuality in relation to recent trends in critical practice. Inspired by the work of Sara Ahmed in particular, our authors explore and reconfigure classic theories of authorship, influence and the text (including those by Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault and Harold Bloom), updating these conversations to include intersectionality specifically, broadly understood to include gendered, racial and other forms of social justice including disability, and the progressive impact of the transmission and transformation of texts. This diverse volume includes discussions of major canonical works such as James Joyce’s Ulysses alongside the recent contemporary literature by authors such as Siri Husvedt and Maggie O’Farrell, as well as theoretical interventions. This volume also engages with how intertextuality can facilitate interdisciplinary and ekphrastic thinking and representation, as the inspiration of music and the visual arts for texts and their transmission is addressed. The choice of intertexts become deliberately political, ethical and artistic signifiers for the authors discussed in this volume, and our contributors are thus enabled to address topics ranging from visual impairment to Shakespearean motherhood to the influence of Jazz culture on writing on the Northern Irish Troubles.


Book Synopsis Progressive Intertextual Practice In Modern And Contemporary Literature by : Katherine Ebury

Download or read book Progressive Intertextual Practice In Modern And Contemporary Literature written by Katherine Ebury and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-05-07 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume aims to reposition intertextuality in relation to recent trends in critical practice. Inspired by the work of Sara Ahmed in particular, our authors explore and reconfigure classic theories of authorship, influence and the text (including those by Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault and Harold Bloom), updating these conversations to include intersectionality specifically, broadly understood to include gendered, racial and other forms of social justice including disability, and the progressive impact of the transmission and transformation of texts. This diverse volume includes discussions of major canonical works such as James Joyce’s Ulysses alongside the recent contemporary literature by authors such as Siri Husvedt and Maggie O’Farrell, as well as theoretical interventions. This volume also engages with how intertextuality can facilitate interdisciplinary and ekphrastic thinking and representation, as the inspiration of music and the visual arts for texts and their transmission is addressed. The choice of intertexts become deliberately political, ethical and artistic signifiers for the authors discussed in this volume, and our contributors are thus enabled to address topics ranging from visual impairment to Shakespearean motherhood to the influence of Jazz culture on writing on the Northern Irish Troubles.

Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry

Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry

Author: Kyra Piperides

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-31

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1000910393

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Delving into the landscapes and politics of twentieth- and twenty-first-century South, East, and West Yorkshire, Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry: Cultural Identities, Political Crises theorises Yorkshire as a distinct region of poetry in its own right. In outlining the commonalities and parameters of this branch of poetry, Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry engages the work with a selection of poets writing in and about the region since 1945, including Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Simon Armitage, Helen Mort, Zaffar Kunial, Kate Fox, and Vicky Foster. Charting the developments in Yorkshire poetry, this book explores several key contexts – including deindustrialisation, the Miners’ Strikes, and Brexit – in detail, evidencing the impacts of these sociopolitical events on the poetry of a region. Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry investigates 75 years of poetry to ask the question: what is Yorkshire poetry? In other words, what is it that connects poems by these writers, whilst setting them apart from poetry of other UK regions?


Book Synopsis Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry by : Kyra Piperides

Download or read book Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry written by Kyra Piperides and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-31 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Delving into the landscapes and politics of twentieth- and twenty-first-century South, East, and West Yorkshire, Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry: Cultural Identities, Political Crises theorises Yorkshire as a distinct region of poetry in its own right. In outlining the commonalities and parameters of this branch of poetry, Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry engages the work with a selection of poets writing in and about the region since 1945, including Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Simon Armitage, Helen Mort, Zaffar Kunial, Kate Fox, and Vicky Foster. Charting the developments in Yorkshire poetry, this book explores several key contexts – including deindustrialisation, the Miners’ Strikes, and Brexit – in detail, evidencing the impacts of these sociopolitical events on the poetry of a region. Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry investigates 75 years of poetry to ask the question: what is Yorkshire poetry? In other words, what is it that connects poems by these writers, whilst setting them apart from poetry of other UK regions?

Imaginary Friend

Imaginary Friend

Author: Stephen Chbosky

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2019-10-01

Total Pages: 830

ISBN-13: 1538731347

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Instant New York Times Bestseller One of Fall 2019's Best Books (People, EW, Lithub, Vox, Washington Post, and more) A young boy is haunted by a voice in his head in this acclaimed epic of literary horror from the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Christopher is seven years old.Christopher is the new kid in town.Christopher has an imaginary friend. We can swallow our fear or let our fear swallow us. Single mother Kate Reese is on the run. Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, she flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with her child. Together, they find themselves drawn to the tight-knit community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania. It's as far off the beaten track as they can get. Just one highway in, one highway out. At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally settle down. Then Christopher vanishes. For six long days, no one can find him. Until Christopher emerges from the woods at the edge of town, unharmed but not unchanged. He returns with a voice in his head only he can hear, with a mission only he can complete: Build a treehouse in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again. Twenty years ago, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower made readers everywhere feel infinite. Now, Chbosky has returned with an epic work of literary horror, years in the making, whose grand scale and rich emotion redefine the genre. Read it with the lights on.


Book Synopsis Imaginary Friend by : Stephen Chbosky

Download or read book Imaginary Friend written by Stephen Chbosky and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Instant New York Times Bestseller One of Fall 2019's Best Books (People, EW, Lithub, Vox, Washington Post, and more) A young boy is haunted by a voice in his head in this acclaimed epic of literary horror from the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Christopher is seven years old.Christopher is the new kid in town.Christopher has an imaginary friend. We can swallow our fear or let our fear swallow us. Single mother Kate Reese is on the run. Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, she flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with her child. Together, they find themselves drawn to the tight-knit community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania. It's as far off the beaten track as they can get. Just one highway in, one highway out. At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally settle down. Then Christopher vanishes. For six long days, no one can find him. Until Christopher emerges from the woods at the edge of town, unharmed but not unchanged. He returns with a voice in his head only he can hear, with a mission only he can complete: Build a treehouse in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again. Twenty years ago, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower made readers everywhere feel infinite. Now, Chbosky has returned with an epic work of literary horror, years in the making, whose grand scale and rich emotion redefine the genre. Read it with the lights on.

It

It

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-01-05

Total Pages: 1184

ISBN-13: 1501142976

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In 1985, six men and one woman are called back together to search for a creature of unspeakable evil that had stalked them as children.


Book Synopsis It by : Stephen King

Download or read book It written by Stephen King and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 1184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1985, six men and one woman are called back together to search for a creature of unspeakable evil that had stalked them as children.