Description
Book Synopsis Not to be confused with fantasy or the supernatural, the fantastic is in actuality its own beast and perhaps the most deeply frightening of all narrative modes. From Dracula and Nightmare on Elm Street, to Carrie and Them, the fantastic has become an ideal vehicle to denounce deep cultural dysfunctions that affect not only the way we understand reality, but also how we construct it.
This work studies the various dimensions of the fantastic mode, examining the influences of iconic authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and Jean Ray, and addressing key narrations such as Guy de Maupasasant''s The Horla and Jordan Peele''s Get Out. It explains why the fantastic is not about ghosts or monsters, but about the incomprehensible sides of our own reality, and the terrifying unknown.
Trade ReviewBold, erudite, and well-informed, this original study maps the encounter with the fantastic across two centuries of cultural production. Stoker and Poe rub shoulders with Rod Serling and Stephen King in a tour de force that bridges accepted classics and neglected milestones of popular fiction and core texts of contemporary film and television. The entire narrative opens a window all the key obsessions of the modern and post-modern condition: sex, death, race, identity and more."—Nicholas J. Cull, University of Southern California
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface: The Monster in the Keyboard
- Introduction: The Power of the Real
- 1. On the Theoretical Front
- 2. "The Horla," Dracula's Older French Cousin
- 3. Dracula Inc.
- 4. Loveless Lovecraft
- 5. Harry Dickson, Detective of the Impossible
- 6. In the Zone
- 7. The X-Fantastic
- 8. King of the Fantastic
- 9. One More Nightmare
- 10. Narrating the Unacceptable
- 11. Tales of the Unthinkable
- Conclusion: Persistence of the Fantastic
- Chapter Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
