Excavating Stephen King
GBP 90.00
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ISBN13: | 9781793628626 |
ISBN10: | 1793628629 |
Binding: | Hardback |
No. of pages: | 258 pages |
Size: | 227x164x25 mm |
Weight: | 572 g |
Language: | English |
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This book combines approaches from science, literary theory, and philosophy to examine the canon of Stephen King?s fiction from a Darwinist hermeneutic perspective in one critical study.
Excavating Stephen King: A Darwinist Hermeneutic Study of the Fiction combines approaches from science and literary theory to examine the canon of Stephen King?s fiction work in a single critical study. James Arthur Anderson has devised the concept of Darwinist Hermeneutics as a critical tool to combine evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, biology, and literary Darwinism with other more conventional critical theory, including structuralism, narratology, semiotics, and linguistic analysis. Using this theory, Anderson examines King?s works in terms of archetypes and mythology, human universals, affective emotions, and the organization of story to create maximum suspense. This method brings new insights into King?s stories and broader implications for storytelling as a whole.
James Anderson?s Excavating Stephen King is a welcomed addition to the ever-growing field of studies devoted to the work of the Master of the Macabre. Anderson is, above all else, a knowledgeable and refreshingly humble voice within the field (the conclusion to this text is worth the price of the entire book), and his genuinely unique approach to King?s creations allows us to see, with clear, specific, and exceptionally well-reasoned analyses, that being a Constant Reader is hardly an exercise in the ?dumbing down of American culture,? as some snobbish critics have suggested. Indeed, with Anderson?s help, we are able to see King in a new light, and ourselves as well, which is to say that the spotlight Anderson provides here ultimately reveals a keen and critical understanding of the self. To put it another way, Anderson?s examination confirms King?s sentiments that ?Life isn?t a support-system for art. It?s the other way around.
Introduction: Stephen King, Fast Food or Five Star?
Part 1: Archetypes: Structuralism Meets Darwin
Chapter 1: The Hero?s Quest
Chapter 2: The Trickster: King?s Tricks and Treats
Chapter 3: In the Beginning? The Creation of the Multiverse
Chapter 4: Silenced by Science: the Anthropocene Apocalypse in Cell
Part 2: Human Universals
Chapter 5 : The Stand: Survival of the Ethical Fittest
Chapter 6: Religion: King as the ?Dark Theologian"
Chapter 7: Free Will: Robots or Wildcards
Chapter 8: Time and 11/22/63
Chapter 9: Nostalgia and Things Past
Part 3: Affective Emotions
Chapter 10: The Battle of the Sexes
Chapter 11: What?s Love Got to Do with It?
Chapter 12: Family and Children
Chapter 13: Rage and Sweet Revenge
Chapter 14 : Fear: Why We Like Scary Stories
Part 4: Darwinism and the Arts
Chapter 15: The Symbolic Animal: Imagination and Creativity
Chapter 16: The Arts: Soothing the Savage Beast
Chapter 17: The Addiction of Language and Story
Chapter 18: The Thematic King
Chapter 19: The Literary King
Conclusion: Darwinist Hermeneutics and Stephen King
Works Cited
About the Author