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Will Spook You for Real Will Spook You For Real. Strategies of Inspiring Societal Anxieties in Popular Forms of Fiction Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Neuphilologischen Fakultät der Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg Vorgelegt von Christina Maria Huber M.A. 2016 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Peter Paul Schnierer Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Günter Leypoldt Dedicated with boundless love and gratitude to Gertraud Teiche, who taught me that kein Weg ist umsonst. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Peter Paul Schnierer, for giving me the chance to work on this project, as well as for his time, his patience, and his helpful input. I am also indebted to my wonderful friends who have spent so much of their valuable time reading my dissertation and providing me with helpful comments and suggestions – above all, Edward Miles, Tina Jäger, Wiebke Stracke, and Matylda Stoy. Elke Hiltner was my ‘emotions supervisor’ in the English Department – a demanding job, but she performed wonderfully. Thanks to all the kind people around me who supported and guided me, and gave me encouragement, feedback and/or coffee. Finally, I owe more to Falko Sievers than I could possibly put in words. Thank you for everything you do and everything you are. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART ONE 1. Introduction: “Will spook you for real” ...................................................... 2 2. Definitions and demarcations .................................................................. 7 2.1 Societal Anxieties ............................................................................... 7 Scare, fear and anxiety ....................................................................... 8 Societal anxiety ................................................................................. 13 To inspire .......................................................................................... 14 2.2 Popular Fiction .................................................................................. 16 Bestsellers ........................................................................................ 18 Key characteristics of popular fiction ................................................ 21 High-, middle- and lowbrow fiction .................................................... 23 Internet-based popular fiction ........................................................... 26 3. Theoretical underpinnings ..................................................................... 29 3.1 Philosophy of anxiety ........................................................................ 29 Sigmund Freud ................................................................................. 29 Søren Kierkegaard ............................................................................ 31 Martin Heidegger .............................................................................. 33 3.2 Folklore theory .................................................................................. 38 We are folk, and we live in folk groups ............................................. 38 Defining folklore ................................................................................ 44 Folklore and emotions ...................................................................... 46 The significance of orality ................................................................. 47 3.3 Political & socio-political theory......................................................... 50 Group pressures and cross pressures .............................................. 50 Social trust ........................................................................................ 52 Anxieties as political instruments ...................................................... 54 Moral panics ..................................................................................... 56 4. Literature & emotions ............................................................................ 61 Beneficial or harmful emotional effects of literature .......................... 64 ‘Aesthetic’ v. ‘real’ emotions.............................................................. 67 “How to write something scary”......................................................... 72 What we do or do not suspend willingly ............................................ 79 Character-reader relationship ........................................................... 85 Making a character likeable .............................................................. 87 Character identification ..................................................................... 98 Categorial identification................................................................... 102 5. Contemporary forms of popular fiction ................................................ 105 The epistolary novel – a case example........................................... 109 Genre characteristics of the contemporary legend ......................... 121 Contemporary legends as genre of fiction ...................................... 129 6. The recipe............................................................................................ 136 6.1 A character the readers feel connected with ................................... 137 Narrative habitus ............................................................................. 140 6.2 A plausible threat ............................................................................ 142 Setting agendas .............................................................................. 149 PART TWO 7. The recipe in practice .......................................................................... 158 8. New genre: post-9/11 fiction ................................................................ 160 Dealing and healing – novels and contemporary legends .............. 163 Responsibility and retaliation – novels and contemporarylegends ................................................ 166 The Reluctant Fundamentalist – a counter example ...................... 168 Incendiary ....................................................................................... 170 9. Gothic horror & weird fiction ................................................................ 180 The genre and its contemporary legends ....................................... 180 Kraken – a counter example ........................................................... 186 World War Z .................................................................................... 195 10. Science fiction ..................................................................................... 214 The genre and its contemporary legends ....................................... 214 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? .......................................... 221 The Circle ....................................................................................... 231 11. Romance ............................................................................................. 245 The genre and its contemporary legends ....................................... 245 We Need To Talk About Kevin ........................................................ 251 12. Thrillers ................................................................................................ 268 The genre and its contemporary legends ....................................... 268 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy................................................................. 276 Black Box ........................................................................................ 288 13. Purposes of societal anxieties in fiction ............................................... 299 SOURCES Cited sources....................................................................................... 305 Consulted sources ............................................................................... 347 PART ONE Will Spook You For Real | 2 1. Introduction: “Will spook you for real” The back cover of my paperback edition of Max Brooks’ World War Z has favourable book reviews printed on it, as is custom. One of them is a quotation from the New York Times Book Review which says, “Will spook you for real” (Brooks 2006: fourth cover). These promotional statements, also called blurbs,1 have been generally viewed with disdain by authors and literary critics ever since the term was coined in 1906.2 Gérard Genette points out that “blurb” means “blah-blah” or “blabber” (2001: 31, my translation), and the general question of style, dignity, sincerity, and credibility of these endorsements has been raised by a number of people. 3 The purpose of blurbs is strictly marketing; they help publishers in their attempts “to position a book” and “to get the books on the shelf” (Morris 2011). In addition, a blurb could also influence the interpretation of a book, or communicate a sense of affiliation-in-taste between the reader and the 1 N.B. This term is used here in reference to promotional statements and reviews only and does not comprise plot summaries, author biographies or other texts possibly found on the cover pages of books. 2 Levinovitz 2012 3 Levinovitz sums up criticism voiced by George Orwell, Camille Paglia, Stephen King, William F. Buckley et al. For a discussion of the problem of sincerity q.v. Morris 2011 and Miller 2010. The “benevolent blurbster” is also mentioned in Roger Ebert’s Little Book of Hollywood Clichés (Ebert 1994: 12), for example; and the phenomenon was poignantly illustrated in 2010, when all-too-flowery commercial support for David Grossman’s novel
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