Current Search: Finney, Charles G. Charles Grandison, 1905-1984 (x)
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Title
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Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao: an epistemological fantasy.
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Creator
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Creed, Daniel B., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
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Abstract/Description
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Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, published in 1936, has been widely read in the last eighty years and has influenced significant authors in the field of fantasy, yet it has been examined in just three critical studies in that time. This study examines Finney's novel as an epistemological fantasy, a heretofore undefined term that precipitates an epistemological crisis of knowing and certainty. The novel opens a way for fantasy literature to establish itself in a Modernist landscape by...
Show moreCharles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, published in 1936, has been widely read in the last eighty years and has influenced significant authors in the field of fantasy, yet it has been examined in just three critical studies in that time. This study examines Finney's novel as an epistemological fantasy, a heretofore undefined term that precipitates an epistemological crisis of knowing and certainty. The novel opens a way for fantasy literature to establish itself in a Modernist landscape by foregrounding the marvelous and extraordinary knowledge that lies just outside the realm of human experience. Finney presents Dr. Lao's circus as a surrogate model of success, and while many of the characters in the novel are unable to accept the truth offered them by the beings of fantasy, the author uses their experiences to satirize the complacencies he witnessed upon returning to America from the Far East in the 1930s.
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Date Issued
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2010
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2683122
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Subject Headings
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Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Knowledge, Theory of, in literature, Fantasy fiction, American, Criticism and interpretation, Postmodernism (Literature)
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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Title
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The sui generis in Charles G. Finney’s The Circus Of Dr. Lao.
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Creator
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White, Adam J., Martin, Thomas L., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
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Abstract/Description
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Charles G. Finney’s 1936 novel The Circus of Dr. Lao was published to enthusiastic reviews, but fell into relative obscurity shortly thereafter. Since its publication, it has been the subject of one peer-reviewed critical essay, a number of reviews, one non-peer-reviewed essay, and a master’s thesis. It was published in a world where the fantastic and unique found only barren desert soil, with no scholarly tradition for the fantastic, nor a widely receptive lay audience for something truly...
Show moreCharles G. Finney’s 1936 novel The Circus of Dr. Lao was published to enthusiastic reviews, but fell into relative obscurity shortly thereafter. Since its publication, it has been the subject of one peer-reviewed critical essay, a number of reviews, one non-peer-reviewed essay, and a master’s thesis. It was published in a world where the fantastic and unique found only barren desert soil, with no scholarly tradition for the fantastic, nor a widely receptive lay audience for something truly unique, or sui generis. The concept of the sui generis, meaning “of its own kind,” provides a useful lens for examining the novel, as Finney develops not only creatures, but people, which are truly of their own kind, borrowing from existing mythologies, traits of humanity, and aspects of nature, recombining them in a singular way which resists classification.
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Date Issued
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2013
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA0004073
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Subject Headings
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Fantasy fiction, American -- Criticism and interpretation, Finney, Charles G. -- (Charles Grandison) -- 1905-1984 -- Circus of Dr. Lao -- Criticism and interpretation, Individualism (Philosophy), Knowledge, Theory of, in literature, Meaning (Philosophy), Symbolism in literature
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Format
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Document (PDF)
