Reading Popular Narrative a Source Book

Reading Popular Narrative A Source Book

Edited by Bob Ashley

Leicester University Press London and Washington CONTENTS

vn Preface ix Acknowledgements

Part 1: Introduction: the reading of popular texts: some initial problems

1 K., Worpole Reading by numbers: contemporary 5 publishing and popular fiction (1984) 2 L. Fiedler 'Towards a definition of popular 9 literature' (1975) 3 R. Rollin 'Against evaluation: the role of the 13 critic of popular culture' (1975) 4 P. O'Flinn 'Production and reproduction: the case 18 of Frankenstein' (1983)

Part 2: Mass society theory: British 'literary' and 33 continental 'sociological' approaches 36 Theory and methodology 36 5 Q.D. Leavis Fiction and the reading public (1932) 39 6 R. Williams The long revolution (1961) 43 7 T.W. Adorno 'Culture industry reconsidered' (1967) 8 S. Hall and The popular arts (1964) 49 P. Whannel 52 9 Walter Benjamin 'The storyteller' (n.d.) 56 Applications

10 Q.D. Leavis 'The case of Miss Dorothy Sayers' 56 (1937) 59 11 T.W. Adorno 'On popular music' (1941) Contents

Part 3: Formula, genre and the structuralist analysis of narrative 67

Theory and methodology 71

12 John G. Cawelti 'The concept of formula in the study of popular literature' (1969) 71 13 Vladimir Propp Morphology of the folk tale (1928) 75 14 Roland Barthes 'Introduction to the structural analysis of narratives'(1966) 79 15 Will Wright Sixguns and society: a structural study of the Western (1975) 86 16 Stephen Neale Genre (1980) 87

Applications 92

17 John G. Cawelti The six-gun mystique (n.d.) 92 18 Elizabeth 'Thrilling structures? science fiction Kwasniewski from the early Amazing and detective fiction' (1987) 96 19 Umberto Eco 'The narrative structure in Fleming' (1966) 101

Part 4: Ideology, readers, pleasure: post-structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis 111

Theory and methodology 120

20 Louis Althusser 'Ideology and ideological state apparatuses' (1971) 120 21 English Studies 'Recent developments in English Studies Group, CCCS, at the Centre' (1976) University of Birmingham 121 22 Roger Bromley 'Natural boundaries: the social function of popular fiction' (1978) 123

IV Contents

23 Pierre Macherey A theory of literary production (1978) 129 24 Roland Barthes 'The death of the author' (1978) 132 25 Roland Barthes The pleasure of the text (1973) 134 26 Stuart Hall 'A critical survey of the theoretical and practical, achievements of the past ten years' (1976) 137 27 Tony Bennett 'Marxism and popular fiction' (1981) 143 28 Sigmund Freud Classic psychoanalytic texts: 'Anxiety'(1926), 'Totem and taboo' (1912-13), 'The uncanny' (1919), 'Medusa's head' (1922), 'Fetishism' (1927) 152 29 J. Lacan 'The dream of Irma's injection' (1954-55) 162 30 Otto Rank The double: a psychoanalytic study (1914) 164 31 Julia Kristeva The powers of horror (1980) 166

Applications 167

32 Bob Dixon Catching them young 2: political ideas in children's fiction (1977) 167 33 Jerry Palmer 'Thrillers: the deviant behind the consensus' (1973) 170 34 Tom Moylan Demand the impossible: science fiction and the Utopian imagination (1986) 176 35 Joseph Grixti Terrors of uncertainty: the cultural contexts of horror fiction (1989) 180 36 Noel Carroll The philosophy of horror (1990) 182 'An introduction to the modern 37 Robin Wood American horror film' (1984) 189 Men, women and chain saws: gender 38 Carol Clover in the modern horror film (1992) 192 '"I shall be with you on your wedding 39 Mladen Dolar night": Lacan and the uncanny' (1991) 198 'Fetishism in the horror film' (1989) 202 40 Roger Dadoun The monstrous-feminine: film, 41 Barbara Creed feminism and psychoanalysis (1993) 204 42 Kaja Silverman The acoustic mirror (1988) 208 Contents

43 Cora Kaplan 'An unsuitable genre for a feminist?' (1986) 211 44 Angela 'Jackie: an ideology of adolescent McRobbie femininity' (1978) 215 45 Janet Batsleer 'Pulp in the pink'(1981) 217 46 Alison Light '"Returning to Manderley": romance fiction, female sexuality and class' (1984) 222 47 Elizabeth Frazer 'Teenage girls reading Jackie' (1987) 226 48 Catherine Belsey Critical practice (1980) 236

Bibliography 240 Index 245