The Gothic World of Stephen King: Landscape of Nightmares

by Gary Hoppenstand (Editor), Ray B. Browne (Series Editor)

Stephen King’s popularity lies in his ability to reinterpret the standard Gothic tale in new and exciting ways. Through his eyes, the conventional becomes unconventional and wonderful. King thus creates his own Gothic world and then interprets it for us. This book analyzes King’s interpretations and his mastery of popular literature. The essays discuss adolescent revolt, the artist as survivor, the vampire in popular literature, and much more.

Genres: Horror

150 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1987

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book that clearly shows up how Stephen King became the chronicler of America's nightmares. His story telling abilities, blood, eroticism and vampires in 20th century popular fiction and his works, allegory, adolescent revolt in his works (e.g. Shining), the grotesque as a metaphor, the artist as survivor, him giving new hermeneutics into the Gothic novel (e.g. Salem's Lot), auto-erotic terror (e.g. Christine), the Dark Tower series as a Gothic western, Pat Sematary as a variant of Frankenstein and Hawthorne revisited... the author gathers some very good contributions by able critics in his volume and offers a new perspective on Stephen King. Really enjoyed it, even though it is a bit dated. Highly recommended!