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MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English language and literature Weird Tales Magazine: Problems of the Genre Bachelor thesis Brno 2015 1 Supervisor: Written by: PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D. Filip Hanzlík Prohlášení: Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou vypracoval samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů. Brno, 23. listopadu 2015 Filip Hanzlík 2 Acknowledgments I would like to thank to my supervisor PhDr. Irena Přibylová, PhD. for her guidance, patience and persistence. She provided me some very important advice and directed me in the right way. Bibliography Hanzlík, Filip. Weird Tales Magazines: Problems of the Genre: bachelor thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English and literature. 2015. 63 pages. The supervisor of the bachelor thesis: PhDr. Irena Přibylová, PhD. Abstract The focus of this bachelor thesis are two selected issues of the Weird Tales magazine and their genre alaysis. The theoretical part consists of various genre definitions, explanations and introductions into the Weird Tales magazine and pulp magazines as a whole. It also includes the historical background of the USA during the 1930s. The analytical part focuses on a cursory analysis of both issues as well as a detailed analysis of some stories. The main purpose of the thesis is to search for the origins of horror fiction, science fiction, crime fiction and fantasy fiction in the Weird Tales magazine. The secondary purpose of this thesis is to find suitable definitions for the four genres listed above. Key words Weird Tales magazine, Weird fiction, short stories, pulp magazines, popular fiction, analysis, genre definitions, fantasy fiction, horror fiction, science fiction, crime fiction 3 Bibliografický záznam Hanzlík, Filip. Weird Tales Magazine: Problems of the Genre: bachelor thesis. Brno: Masarykova Univerzita, Pedagogická fakulta, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury. 2015 63 stran. Vedoucí bakalářské práce: PhDr. Irena Přibylová, PhD. Anotace Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá dvěma konkrétními čísly časopisu Weird Tales a jejich žánrovou analýzou. Teoretická část sestává z různých žánrových definic, vysvětlení a úvodů do magazínu Weird Tales, stejně jako do problemaiky "pulp" magazínů všeobecně. Taktéž obsahuje historické pozadí USA v třicátých letech 20. století, v době, ze které pocházejí ony dva vybrané kusy magazínu Weird Tales. Analytická část se zabývá všeobecnou analýzu obou vybraných čísel časopisu, stejně jako detailní analýzou některých povídek. Hlavním úkolem této práce je nalézt původ hororu, sci-fi, krimi a fantasy v magazínu Weird Tales. Sekundární úkol této práce je nalézt uspokojivé definice vyjmenovaných žánrů. Klíčová slova magazín Weird Tales, podivná fikce, krátké povídky, laciné magazíny, populární literatura, definice žánrů, fantasy, horor, sci-fi, krimi 4 Table of Contents 1. Introduction: Topic Choice and Thesis Aim ..................................................................... 6 2. Definition and comparison of popular and literary fiction ................................................ 8 3. Pulp Magazines ................................................................................................................ 11 4. Weird Tales Overview: History ........................................................................................ 13 5. The Cultural Background of the 1930s in America ......................................................... 16 6. Genre Overview: Introduction and Explanation .............................................................. 18 6. 1. Gothic and Horror Fiction ....................................................................................... 18 6. 2. Crime Fiction .......................................................................................................... 20 6. 3. The Science Fiction Genre ...................................................................................... 24 7. Introduction into the analytical part ................................................................................. 26 8. Weird Tales, August – September 1936 ........................................................................... 28 8. 1. Analysis : "The Door Into Infinity" ......................................................................... 31 8. 2. Analyisis: "Red Nails (part 2)" ................................................................................ 37 8. 3. Analysis: "Death Holds the Post" ............................................................................ 43 8. 4. Analysis: "The Diary of Phillip Westerly" .............................................................. 47 9. Weird Tales, April 1939 ................................................................................................... 50 10. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 56 11. Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 59 11. 1. Primary sources ..................................................................................................... 59 11. 2. Secondary sources ................................................................................................. 59 11. 3. Web Sources .......................................................................................................... 61 12. The Apendix ................................................................................................................... 63 5 1. Introduction: Topic Choice and Thesis Aim Although the topic choice was a difficult task for me, mainly because I had no experience with writing such thesis at all, I managed to choose the right one for me. I am a big fan of horror, science and crime fiction and I like strange, creepy and surreal stories. It is hard to search for stories like this in most literary fiction, therefore popular fiction was the right choice for me. I also like analysis, clarification and questioning (I am a big skeptic). I decided to combine these interests together, making genre analysis the right choice for my thesis. I was searching the right source to analyse and I came across Weird Tales, a pulp magazine filled with the right fiction for me. During the literature studies we were mostly focusing on English and American literary fiction. Popular fiction is a literature as well and in my opinion, there was not enough space for it during the studies. It is also necessary to say that popular fiction is much more spread and therefore affects much more people, making it also very important. My thesis will focus on genre alanysis of two different pieces of Weird Tales from the 1930s and their contribution to various genres. I will search it for horror fiction, science fiction and crime fiction and the reason to do so is because I want to see how exactly did these genres look like then and if they existed in clear form or were combined with another genres. I consider myself a very pragmatical (athough a pretty absent minded and chaotic) person who loves exact expression and crystal clear method of problem solving. Therefore I will try to justify everything in my work, so I avoid any blind spots, uneccesary chapters and questionable content. My thesis is divided into two main parts, theoretical and analytical. Theoretical part is mostly explanatory and its purpose is to find and possibly challenge the definitions of various genres is academic sources, I also explain what are the pulp magazines and the Weird Tales there. These definitions are crucuial for the the analytical part (for example what exactly is science fiction, literary fcition, Weird Tales magazine), so there will not be left any obscurities for the next part. The analytical part will (as expected) analyse all the concepts and try to find and 6 describe the origins and signs of the above-listed genres in selected Weird Tales magazines. I can not omit the possibility of finding another genres than the three listed above. If I do so, I will introduce and define (according to academic sources) these genres at the end of the analytical part (because they were not the expected outputs, therefore it was not possible to desribe them in the theoretical part). If no currently existing genres will be find (although it is very unlikely to happen), I will describe the ones I found and give them provisory names (also in the analytical part). 7 2. Definition and comparison of popular and literary fiction As a first step I will explain the difference between popular and literary fiction according to academic sources. This is the most basic step for my further categorizing, as all the literature we are about to investigate is popular fiction. Literary fiction (also known as serious fiction) are fictional works that are not plot centered but theme centered. This basically means that this kind of literature is more about commentary on some social, political or other condition. Or they can be an exploration of any human condition, meaning that this kind of work might as well be centered on a character. (William Coles, 2007, p. 112.) These works are usually written in serious and layered language but this does