Overview

Walking Shadows focuses on the American fantastic and the American grotesque, attempting in this manner for the first time to establish an overview of and a theoretical approach to two literary modes that have often been regarded as essential to an understanding of the American cultural canon. The central importance of these two literary forms has been pointed out earlier by important theorists such as Stanley Cavell, David Reynolds, and William Van O’Connor. A number of literary works, from the beginning of the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth centuries, are taken up in order to illustrate the inherent links or family resemblances between the two modes, with special reference to the way in which a Bakhtinian reading may facilitate our appreciation of their status within the canon. These excursions into the House of Fantastic and Grotesque Fiction may be of interest not only to hardcore aficionados, but also to philosophically minded readers in general, in particular perhaps to those who have paid acute attention to debates on late twentieth and early twenty-first century post-structuralism and deconstruction (where the classic positions of Foucault, Derrida, et al. still appear to be relevant).

Full Product Details

Author:   Ib Johansen
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   211
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.905kg
ISBN:  

9789004303706

ISBN 10:   9004303707
Pages:   498
Publication Date:   27 August 2015
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Preface In the Realm of Theory Introduction: Theorizing the American Fantastic and the American Grotesque Chapter 1: Todorov, Bakhtin, and Other Theorists Nineteenth-century Phantasmagorias Chapter 2: Rip Van Winkle's Fall into History: Framing Washington Irving's Tale Chapter 3: Wrestling with God in the Devil's Territories: Hawthorne and the Fantastic Chapter 4: The Crowing of the Cock: Melville's Fantastic Turn in Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! Chapter 5: Convoluted Spaces: The Carnivalesque-Grotesque in Edgar Allan Poe's King Pest Chapter 6: The Apocalyptic-Grotesque in Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death Chapter 7: In the Empire of Signs: Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat and the Pure Fantastic

Reviews

Author Information

Ib Johansen, emeritus Professor of the English Department at the University of Aarhus, 1971-2008. He published books on Danish Renaissance interludes and on fantastic literature in Denmark from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries, and furthermore edited Fins de Siècle / New Beginnings (Unipress.dk, 2000). Apart from these he has published numerous articles on fantastic literature and science fiction in various critical anthologies and literary reviews, and translated a number of German- and English-speaking poets into Danish.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions