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Title: Aesthetic immersion and imaginative constructs in the novels of Henry James.
Creator: Alvarez, Alberto Gabriel, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: A recurrent condition plaguing many of James's characters can be diagnosed as an aesthetic dependency. These characters turn their back on "the real thing" and exist in a precarious world of beauty and misplaced ideals. The novels examined present various methods James's characters utilize to elude the actual world. In The Tragic Muse, the line that separates mimetic art and actuality is nonexistent. Through imitation and performance characters create and represent what ought to be. Aesthetic...
Show moreA recurrent condition plaguing many of James's characters can be diagnosed as an aesthetic dependency. These characters turn their back on "the real thing" and exist in a precarious world of beauty and misplaced ideals. The novels examined present various methods James's characters utilize to elude the actual world. In The Tragic Muse, the line that separates mimetic art and actuality is nonexistent. Through imitation and performance characters create and represent what ought to be. Aesthetic immersion and imaginative constructs are opposed methods of escape in The Spoils of Poynton. The Ambassadors depicts a world where characters conspire to disguise the truth. Lambert Strether's imagination is stimulated by this milieu and takes flight. Similarly, the characters in The Wings of the Dove go to extreme lengths to realize their aesthetic visions. Ultimately, each character in these novels must deal with the sacrifices that are made when one chooses to exist in a world consisting solely of beauty and imagination.
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Date Issued: 1996
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15331
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, American, Literature, English
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Mother as muse: A psychoanalytic reading of the cathartic works of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Corso.
Creator: Graff, Jeffrey David., Florida Atlantic University, Paton, Priscilla M., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Abstract/Description: The Cold-War mother lived in an era of angst, animosity, and anxiety. The immigrant mothers of the Beats not only had to grapple with the demands of her children, but also had to take on the post-Freudian demands of their new society. This anxiety tainted her mind, her milk, and consequently her children's writing. The works of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso exhibit the dramatic effect that their mothers had on their life and cathartic writings. Mothers were the wellspring...
Show moreThe Cold-War mother lived in an era of angst, animosity, and anxiety. The immigrant mothers of the Beats not only had to grapple with the demands of her children, but also had to take on the post-Freudian demands of their new society. This anxiety tainted her mind, her milk, and consequently her children's writing. The works of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso exhibit the dramatic effect that their mothers had on their life and cathartic writings. Mothers were the wellspring and crumbling foundation of these writers as well as the muse who inspired them to beatness.
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Date Issued: 1995
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15160
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Psychology, Social, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Lucia novels: E. F. Benson's comic reflections on English social change.
Creator: Brister, Winifred Collins, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Edward Frederic Benson's Lucia novels are comic commentaries on social change and the fragmentation of English society from the end of the Edwardian era into the Georgian, especially reflecting the disenchantment of the English people with their traditional beliefs, roles, and class structure. What Matthew Arnold referred to as the Philistines of England--the newly-risen bourgeois--struggle to imitate the upper classes and to emulate their use of leisure time. Benson's characterizations of...
Show moreEdward Frederic Benson's Lucia novels are comic commentaries on social change and the fragmentation of English society from the end of the Edwardian era into the Georgian, especially reflecting the disenchantment of the English people with their traditional beliefs, roles, and class structure. What Matthew Arnold referred to as the Philistines of England--the newly-risen bourgeois--struggle to imitate the upper classes and to emulate their use of leisure time. Benson's characterizations of the villagers of Riseholme and Tilling match closely the descriptions of those Philistines; however, we cannot dislike them for their weaknesses. The positive change in the author's attitude toward them compels us to cheer them on as the victors of the twentieth century.
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Date Issued: 1992
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14877
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, History, Modern, Literature, English
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Gabriel Conroy and closure in "Dubliners".
Creator: Becker, Virginia Mary, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Gabriel Conroy in "The Dead" appears to be the boy of the first three stories in adulthood. The boy's artistic mind is formed and limited by adult influences so that he dreams of escape. Gabriel has the same artistic disposition and has developed a limited outlet for his talents. He, too, envisions escape. Gabriel's epiphany and his sense of insecurity and pride are so like the boy's that the similarity suggests one character who has developed a habit of introspection. Finally, Gabriel's...
Show moreGabriel Conroy in "The Dead" appears to be the boy of the first three stories in adulthood. The boy's artistic mind is formed and limited by adult influences so that he dreams of escape. Gabriel has the same artistic disposition and has developed a limited outlet for his talents. He, too, envisions escape. Gabriel's epiphany and his sense of insecurity and pride are so like the boy's that the similarity suggests one character who has developed a habit of introspection. Finally, Gabriel's sexual anxiety implies that he fears women and fears his own sexuality. Joyce repeats patterns of imagery in "The Dead" that echo the boy's developing sexuality, indicating that the boy and the man suffer the same fears. Seeing Gabriel Conroy as the boy-narrator of the first three stories creates closure for Dubliners, and it gives the reader insight into the character of Gabriel.
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Date Issued: 1991
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14764
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, English
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Chaos in Kurt Vonnegut's "Sirens of Titan".
Creator: Barney, David Lawrence, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The individual's search for absolute order and meaning within a chaotic universe is an important theme in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. In Sirens of Titan, Malachi Constant unwillingly undertakes this futile quest and is consequently victimized, philosophically and psychologically, by various agents and symbols of chaos. After spiraling outward into the chaotic cosmos, his simplistic beliefs revealed to be illusion, Malachi spirals back to himself and to Earth, literally and figuratively, only...
Show moreThe individual's search for absolute order and meaning within a chaotic universe is an important theme in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. In Sirens of Titan, Malachi Constant unwillingly undertakes this futile quest and is consequently victimized, philosophically and psychologically, by various agents and symbols of chaos. After spiraling outward into the chaotic cosmos, his simplistic beliefs revealed to be illusion, Malachi spirals back to himself and to Earth, literally and figuratively, only to confront the illusions within. In addition, the form of Sirens of Titan can be seen as a metaphor for meaninglessness, mirroring and echoing Malachi Constant's and the reader's absurd call for clarity within chaos.
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Date Issued: 1991
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14727
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Imaginative integration in four novels by Doris Lessing.
Creator: Blondin, Brian Gerard, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Within the remarkable diversity of Doris Lessing's fiction, the author's interest in the interrelation between the individual and the collective remains a constant. Her early works pursued this theme within a socio-political framework; however, her continued explorations have evolved an apolitical ethos which unfolds progressively in all of her work since The Golden Notebook. The impetus of this development, which has encouraged Lessing's experiments with various narrative techniques, is her...
Show moreWithin the remarkable diversity of Doris Lessing's fiction, the author's interest in the interrelation between the individual and the collective remains a constant. Her early works pursued this theme within a socio-political framework; however, her continued explorations have evolved an apolitical ethos which unfolds progressively in all of her work since The Golden Notebook. The impetus of this development, which has encouraged Lessing's experiments with various narrative techniques, is her desire to articulate a formula integrating the self with society; in one form or another, the catalyst of this integration is the creative imagination. By tracing related thematic and aesthetic courses of development in four novels--The Golden Notebook, The Four-Gated City, The Making of the Representative for Planet Eight, and The Good Terrorist--this thesis will demonstrate how Lessing's quest for integration has shaped her present apolitical ethos.
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Date Issued: 1989
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14508
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, African, Literature, English
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: "JULIA" CHARACTERIZATION IN THE PLAYS OF LILLIAN HELLMAN.
Creator: BELL, KATHLEEN T., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The Julia character, as depicted in the essay in Pentimento, provides a character model for Lillian Hellman's plays. Julia's strength of personal responsibility provides Hellman a measure by which her characters succeed or fail, a criterion upon which personal worth is judged. Julia's strength, compassion, and personal responsibility are depicted in varying degrees in the characters created in Watch on the Rhine, The Children's Hour, The Little Foxes, Another Part of the Forest, The Searching...
Show moreThe Julia character, as depicted in the essay in Pentimento, provides a character model for Lillian Hellman's plays. Julia's strength of personal responsibility provides Hellman a measure by which her characters succeed or fail, a criterion upon which personal worth is judged. Julia's strength, compassion, and personal responsibility are depicted in varying degrees in the characters created in Watch on the Rhine, The Children's Hour, The Little Foxes, Another Part of the Forest, The Searching Wind, and The Autumn Garden. As reflected in the plays, Julia is Hellman's model, her ideal; she is the vehicle for Hellman's strong personal and social statements.
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Date Issued: 1980
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14044
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Theater, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: THE THEMATIC RELEVANCE OF JOHN GARDNER'S "UNRELIABLE NARRATOR.".
Creator: ATWILL, WILLIAM D., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Gardner's use of unreliable and often intrusive narrative voices is a structural key to the world view presented in his novels. All the narrators, whether they be involved central characters or intrusive third-person voices, journey toward knowledge and affirmation in art. In The Wreckage of Ag'athon, the aged seer is driven by the chaos he cannot untangle to create his own rationale. Grendel embraces a nihilistic world view until the monster is finally lifted to a limited sort of vision as a...
Show moreGardner's use of unreliable and often intrusive narrative voices is a structural key to the world view presented in his novels. All the narrators, whether they be involved central characters or intrusive third-person voices, journey toward knowledge and affirmation in art. In The Wreckage of Ag'athon, the aged seer is driven by the chaos he cannot untangle to create his own rationale. Grendel embraces a nihilistic world view until the monster is finally lifted to a limited sort of vision as a shaper of experience. The voice of The Sunlight Dialogues is limited omniscient, yet the narrator intrudes, reminding the reader that he is dependent upon an involved point of view. In the dream-narrative of Jason and Medeia, perhaps the best utilization of an involved, fallible narrator, the journey toward affirmative vision balongs more to the narrator than the hero.
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Date Issued: 1978
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13911
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: THE PORTRAYAL OF ADOLESCENCE IN THE NOVELS OF CARSON MCCULLERS.
Creator: BINDAS, SUSAN ANNE, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Adolescents play an integral role in Carson McCullers' work, particularly The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding, and Clock Without Hands. In these novels the characterizations of Mick, Frankie, Jester, and Sherman are drawn with an intuitive awareness of principles of adolescent psychology. McCullers focuses on the expectations, uncertainties, and contradictions of the adolescent years. However, her novels are much more than stories of troubled teens. Largely because of...
Show moreAdolescents play an integral role in Carson McCullers' work, particularly The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding, and Clock Without Hands. In these novels the characterizations of Mick, Frankie, Jester, and Sherman are drawn with an intuitive awareness of principles of adolescent psychology. McCullers focuses on the expectations, uncertainties, and contradictions of the adolescent years. However, her novels are much more than stories of troubled teens. Largely because of their adolescent characteristics, Nick, Frankie, Jester, and Sherman serve as fitting symbolic vehicles for McCullers' exploration of such ageless themes as the search for self and the search for love.
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Date Issued: 1977
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13862
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: SOUTH AFRICAN ANALOGUE TO "ABSALOM, ABSALOM|" (FAULKNER, PATON).
Creator: BLANTON, JERRY CAIN, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Literature is influenced by the society in which it is written. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner and Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton have many similarities because the societies which produced them have similarities. The Old South and the Afrikaner society of South Africa have many historical occurrences and cultural attitudes in common, among them: former slave societies, wars with aborigenes, an agrarian-industrial conflict in which they were defeated, racial segregation,...
Show moreLiterature is influenced by the society in which it is written. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner and Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton have many similarities because the societies which produced them have similarities. The Old South and the Afrikaner society of South Africa have many historical occurrences and cultural attitudes in common, among them: former slave societies, wars with aborigenes, an agrarian-industrial conflict in which they were defeated, racial segregation, Calvinist religion, and an intermingling of the past and the present. Absalom, Absalom! and Too Late the Phalarope have the following in common: tone, titles of despair, character types, function of setting, qualities of Greek tragedy, Biblical allusions and syntax. A sociological literary study may help to understand how a society influences its literature.
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Date Issued: 1977
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13850
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, African
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: REVOLUTIONARY BLACK POETRY, 1960-1970.
Creator: BORNSTEIN, RITA, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines the work of young black poets of the sixties--LeRoi Jones, Don L. Lee, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and others-- who have played a significant role in the cultural revolution which has accompanied the contemporary black struggle for liberation. It establishes the framework of the black cultural revolution, and explores its rationale and the emerging new black aesthetic. It traces the roots and examines the themes and techniques of the poetry itself. Finally, the...
Show moreThis thesis examines the work of young black poets of the sixties--LeRoi Jones, Don L. Lee, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and others-- who have played a significant role in the cultural revolution which has accompanied the contemporary black struggle for liberation. It establishes the framework of the black cultural revolution, and explores its rationale and the emerging new black aesthetic. It traces the roots and examines the themes and techniques of the poetry itself. Finally, the response of establishment critics to this poetry is examined along with the new black criticism which is developing as an adjunct to the new black aesthetic.
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Date Issued: 1971
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13445
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Cerebral Cabaret: All Voices Present and Accounted For. A collection of short stories.
Creator: Angel, Tee, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Cerebral Cabaret: All Voices Present and Accounted For is a collection of short stories that question identity and purpose in life. Each of the stories gravitates to a center of family, the need for love, and the search for a sense of belonging. Is success the sale of the perfect work of art, or is it taking a drive, rolling down the windows, and fighting to hold the breeze in outstretched hands? When love fails, can an unholy communion provide solace? Can a man feel at home in the house of a...
Show moreCerebral Cabaret: All Voices Present and Accounted For is a collection of short stories that question identity and purpose in life. Each of the stories gravitates to a center of family, the need for love, and the search for a sense of belonging. Is success the sale of the perfect work of art, or is it taking a drive, rolling down the windows, and fighting to hold the breeze in outstretched hands? When love fails, can an unholy communion provide solace? Can a man feel at home in the house of a stranger? Do voices from the past seal the fate of our future? Does death alter love? Can life be revised? These are a few of the questions mulled over in this collection. Each character's ostensible success is not at stake, only their continued willingness to navigate the world in which they exist.
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Date Issued: 2006
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13337
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The textual masks of Nathanael West.
Creator: Bezet, Jared, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The novels of Nathanael West are preoccupied with the deconstruction of Western civilization, satirizing and parodying its most respected ideologies and literatures; they are also involved in recreating both cultural and personal identity from the deconstructed fragments of this culture by performances or masks of identity. The textual mask is a trope that performs both these functions in the work of Eliot, Pound, and Joyce, but especially in West. West demonstrated the mask's destructive...
Show moreThe novels of Nathanael West are preoccupied with the deconstruction of Western civilization, satirizing and parodying its most respected ideologies and literatures; they are also involved in recreating both cultural and personal identity from the deconstructed fragments of this culture by performances or masks of identity. The textual mask is a trope that performs both these functions in the work of Eliot, Pound, and Joyce, but especially in West. West demonstrated the mask's destructive force and constructive potential in both his writing and his personal life. The novels---The Dream Life of Balso Snell, Miss Lonelyhearts, A Cool Million, and The Day of the Locust---variously attack artistic or political formulae that privilege escape from culture's degradation, or that offer erroneous promises of subjective or cultural wholeness. West's life and art, then, exhibit the usefulness of the mask in the grim battle for the formation of artistic and political subjectivity.
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Date Issued: 2005
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13201
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A great mind is androgynous: A look at the late poetry of Sylvia Plath through Virginia Woolf's theory of the androgynous consciousness.
Creator: Blackburn, Shilo R., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The female subject in the late poetry of Sylvia Plath experiences a physical and intellectual transformation, as Plath attempts to challenge and redefine the social construction of woman through Virginia Woolf's influence. Plath aspires to achieve a poetic voice that embodies characteristics of both genders simultaneously, an androgynous consciousness by Woolf's account, and one that can speak despite Western culture's imposed inferiority of women writers. Since traditionally masculine...
Show moreThe female subject in the late poetry of Sylvia Plath experiences a physical and intellectual transformation, as Plath attempts to challenge and redefine the social construction of woman through Virginia Woolf's influence. Plath aspires to achieve a poetic voice that embodies characteristics of both genders simultaneously, an androgynous consciousness by Woolf's account, and one that can speak despite Western culture's imposed inferiority of women writers. Since traditionally masculine language has defined women's social roles through their physical bodies, Plath's aim is to immerse her female subject in the experiences of her corporeal body as a means to transcend her physical existence and symbolically achieve a supreme consciousness unadulterated by gender designs. Through the transportation of the physical, female body, then, Plath believes that her poetic voice can emerge in the form of an androgynous spirit capable of accessing powers of both genders.
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Date Issued: 2004
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13147
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Women&#039;s Studies, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Langston Hughes's Jesse B. Semple commentaries: A Nietzschean reading.
Creator: Angelone, Tina., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Friedrich Nietzsche's notion of the Apollonian/Dionysian opposition found in The Birth of Tragedy provides a means to analyze Langston Hughes's Jesse B. Semple commentaries. The language and archetypal characters found in the Semple commentaries demonstrates the shifting balance between the struggles and the triumphs of some American Negroes. This shifting balance is represented by the Dionysian and Apollonian traits of Simple and the narrator, Boyd. By creating these characters, Hughes is...
Show moreFriedrich Nietzsche's notion of the Apollonian/Dionysian opposition found in The Birth of Tragedy provides a means to analyze Langston Hughes's Jesse B. Semple commentaries. The language and archetypal characters found in the Semple commentaries demonstrates the shifting balance between the struggles and the triumphs of some American Negroes. This shifting balance is represented by the Dionysian and Apollonian traits of Simple and the narrator, Boyd. By creating these characters, Hughes is able to display the importance of the low-down culture for some black artists. Through the intoxicated Dionysian insight of Semple and the Apollonian logos of the narrator, Hughes demonstrates the blending of folk tradition or myth to common sense or reality. Ultimately, the struggle between these characters constructs the image of the New Negro, as well as the creative framework of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Date Issued: 2004
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13143
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, History, Black, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Hemingway hero and the monomyth: An examination of the hero quest myth in the Nick Adams stories.
Creator: Bajger, John James, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The code hero is the foundation of Hemingway interpretation and central to an understanding of his ideology. The values, ideals and actions of many of Hemingway's greatest heroes fit within this framework, and the Hemingway hero is as firm a part of American literary myth as Melville's Great White Whale. Twain's Huckleberry Finn, or Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha county. I will use Joseph Campbell's work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a study in which he details his conception of the monomyth--...
Show moreThe code hero is the foundation of Hemingway interpretation and central to an understanding of his ideology. The values, ideals and actions of many of Hemingway's greatest heroes fit within this framework, and the Hemingway hero is as firm a part of American literary myth as Melville's Great White Whale. Twain's Huckleberry Finn, or Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha county. I will use Joseph Campbell's work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a study in which he details his conception of the monomyth---the basic underlying structure for all heroic myths---to show how the idea of the mythic hero links the Nick Adams stories together and also serves to reveal the character of Nick himself. Most importantly, however, it is my contention that Campbell's stages of the monomyth---the departure, the road of trials, and the return---can be utilized to describe and analyze the major themes found in the Nick Adam's stories.
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Date Issued: 2003
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13052
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Hiro of the platonic: Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash".
Creator: Boehm, Carl John, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: In The Republic, Plato constructs the ideal city-state built on the principle of justice. Plato establishes an urban utopia with a set of morals through which the citizen helps the state and the state helps the citizen. Centuries after Plato's Republic, Neal Stephenson presents in Snow Crash, a cyberpunk adventure, a virtual city known as the Metaverse. Hiro Protagonist, as his name implies, defends his virtual city from a threatening virus in the same way that a citizen in Plato's Republic...
Show moreIn The Republic, Plato constructs the ideal city-state built on the principle of justice. Plato establishes an urban utopia with a set of morals through which the citizen helps the state and the state helps the citizen. Centuries after Plato's Republic, Neal Stephenson presents in Snow Crash, a cyberpunk adventure, a virtual city known as the Metaverse. Hiro Protagonist, as his name implies, defends his virtual city from a threatening virus in the same way that a citizen in Plato's Republic would protect the city-state. An analysis of Snow Crash using ideas from The Republic reveals the "hacker" to be a socially minded individual who preserves order in the cybernetic utopia that is the Metaverse. This analysis demonstrates that justice must be sought in every era, and that heroes unique to their milieu pursuit justice.
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Date Issued: 2001
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12867
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Feasting with Banquo: The ghost stories of Fritz Leiber.
Creator: Adair, Gerald M., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: In "Smoke Ghost" (1941), Fritz Leiber created the contemporary paradigm for the "urban horror story" that has been so successfully exploited by Stephen King, Richard Matheson, Dennis Etchison, Ramsey Campbell and many others. At the heart of Leiber's ghost stories, however, rest a firm "tradition" of supernatural fiction, stemming from primitive religion, on the one hand, and literary example on the other. While his urban settings (Chicago, San Francisco) may be seen as contemporary...
Show moreIn "Smoke Ghost" (1941), Fritz Leiber created the contemporary paradigm for the "urban horror story" that has been so successfully exploited by Stephen King, Richard Matheson, Dennis Etchison, Ramsey Campbell and many others. At the heart of Leiber's ghost stories, however, rest a firm "tradition" of supernatural fiction, stemming from primitive religion, on the one hand, and literary example on the other. While his urban settings (Chicago, San Francisco) may be seen as contemporary reinterpretations of Horace Walpole's Gothic castle, his specters are the lineal descendants of Shakespeare's, LeFanu's, and Henry James's. Leiber's later use of Jungian archetypes (Shadow and Anima) is superimposed on the traditional ghostly archetype. An analysis of his novel-length ghost story, Our Lady of Darkness , reveals the lurking malevolence of a LeFanu specter, while the ghosts of Shakespeare hover in the wings of stories in which he explores themes of sex, guilt, and death. In each of Leiber's ghost stories, the elements of the tradition combine with "haunts" from the author's personal psychic history to produce a powerful fantasy experience that persists despite threats to the genre by "science, common sense, and psychiatry."
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Date Issued: 2000
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12666
Subject Headings: Literature, Modern, Literature, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Literature, American (13)	+ -
Literature, English (4)	+ -
Literature, African (2)	+ -
History, Black (1)	+ -
History, Modern (1)	+ -

Psychology, Social (1)	+ -
Theater (1)	+ -
Women&#039;s Studies (1)	+ -

Florida Atlantic University (18)	+ -
Department of English (17)	+ -
ATWILL, WILLIAM D. (1)	+ -
Adair, Gerald M. (1)	+ -
Alvarez, Alberto Gabriel (1)	+ -

Angel, Tee (1)	+ -
Angelone, Tina. (1)	+ -
BELL, KATHLEEN T. (1)	+ -
BINDAS, SUSAN ANNE (1)	+ -
BLANTON, JERRY CAIN (1)	+ -
BORNSTEIN, RITA (1)	+ -
Bajger, John James (1)	+ -
Barney, David Lawrence (1)	+ -
Becker, Virginia Mary (1)	+ -
Bezet, Jared (1)	+ -
Blackburn, Shilo R. (1)	+ -
Blondin, Brian Gerard (1)	+ -
Boehm, Carl John (1)	+ -
Brister, Winifred Collins (1)	+ -
Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature (1)	+ -
Graff, Jeffrey David. (1)	+ -
Paton, Priscilla M. (1)	+ -

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