DOCSLIB.ORG

A Materialist Critique of the Settler Occupation of Maine in Stephen King’S Pet Sematary

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Materialist Critique of the Settler Occupation of Maine in Stephen King’S Pet Sematary A Materialist Critique of the Settler Occupation of Maine in Stephen King’s Pet Sematary by Nathan Cleaver A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida December 2020 Copyright 2020 by Nathan Cleaver ii A Materialist Critique of the Settler Occupation of Maine in Stephen King’s Pet Sematary by Nathan Cleaver This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate’s thesis advisor, Dr. Stacey Balkan, Department of English, and has been approved by all members of the supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ____________________________________ Stacey Balkan, Ph.D. Thesis Advisor ____________________________________ Taylor Hagood, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Shelby Johnson, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Oliver Buckton, Ph.D. Chair, Department of English ____________________________________ Michael J. Horswell, Ph.D. Dean, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters ____________________________________ ________________________ Robert W. Stackman Jr., Ph.D. Date Dean, Graduate College iii Acknowledgements While it may seem to those closest to me that this thesis is the result of countless hours spent quietly by myself, I am deeply indebted to those who have provided me with constant support. Thank you to Dr. Stacey Balkan for hearing my ideas, validating my process, and gently reorienting me when necessary. To Dr. Shelby Johnson and her great reading suggestions. To Dr. Taylor Hagood for making late night classes fun. Thank you for all the hours spent in CU 311 with friends and colleagues I will never forget. Finishing this project and degree without you has felt near impossible. Thank you to my loving wife, Jeannine, whose hard work and support made this possible in the first place. And, last but not least, thank you to my lovely cats whose constant reminders to take breaks was much appreciated and almost always completely necessary. iv Abstract Author: Nathan Cleaver Title: A Materialist Critique of the Settler Occupation of Maine in Stephen King’s Pet Sematary Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Stacey Balkan Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2020 This project seeks to give Stephen King and Pet Sematary full consideration through applying a multi-faceted ecocritical approach to a novel so clearly founded on the relationship between the land and its inhabitants. Through my analysis of the environment’s role in Pet Sematary, I will engage with important questions asked by both Historical and New Materialists in order to examine as completely as possible the relationship between Indigenous peoples and colonist conceptions of property, land use, and nonhuman agency present in the pages. Study of this sort engages in a critique of settler colonial ideals through a thorough examination of one of popular culture’s most successful and apparently errant offenders of intentional appropriation of Indigenous belief. Ultimately, this project seeks to reclaim not only Pet Sematary or King’s oeuvre, but the horror genre more broadly. Given the genre’s affordances for critiquing material histories, this project asserts horror’s utility for the development of new understandings of old fears and particularly as a means of asserting nonhuman agency. v A Materialist Critique of the Settler Occupation of Maine in Stephen King’s Pet Sematary INTRODUCTION: Horror, King, and the Possibility of Revisiting Old Fears With New Understandings ................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: Violent Dispossession and Colonial Hubris in Ludlow ...................... 14 CHAPTER TWO: A Potent Nonhuman Agency .............................................................. 49 CONCLUSION: Reclaiming Tentacularity in Horror ...................................................... 76 WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................... 84 vi Introduction: Horror, King, and the Possibility of Revisiting Old Fears With New Understandings “Like the rides in the amusement park which mimic violent death, the tale of horror is a chance to examine what’s going on behind doors which we usually keep double-locked. Yet the human imagination is not content with locked doors.” Stephen King, Danse Macabre Let’s face it, horror gets a bad rap. It scares us, makes us feel uncomfortable, and often devolves into grotesqueries where other genres do not. However, as King notes above, hidden just beneath the skin is a body rife with critiques of hegemonic cultural representations, insidious family dynamics, the representation and experience of mental health problems, trauma, and so much more. A story told with the express purpose of causing fear can be seen in the ancient folk tales across the world. Even though, at its inception, Gothic fiction was derided by Enlightenment contemporaries for not depicting factual life, the genre often portrayed deeply embedded horrors that stemmed from very real historical events surrounding the religious inquisitions of the early 1100s. Papal authority sanctioned inquisitors’ use of torture in the early 1200s, giving way to brutal acts of torment and mutilation so often pointed to as a weakness of the genre. The first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto in 1764, introduced curiosity and fear into the literary canon whereas Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein presented a conception of scientific 1 belief into her tale of dread. Over time, writers such as Edgar Allen Poe and E.T.A. Hoffman imbued their monsters with psychological traits and symbolism. The horror genre’s ability to embody these sorts of elements in flawed characters, ghosts, or monsters presents a unique opportunity to not only feel the weight of frightening experience but to understand the contexts that drive these fears. After a brief lull during WW2, horror’s popularity resurfaced in the United States during the political and cultural unrest of the 1960s and 1970s. Largely spurred by the publication of Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, The Other by Tom Tryon, and The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, horror moved out of the pulps and into novel form. These three novels experienced great critical and commercial success upon release and were ultimately made into films that transfixed the nation during the tumultuous end of the Vietnam War and beginning of the Cold War; effectively causing what is affectionately called “the horror boom.” Soon after, a wealth of authors emerged to capitalize on the boom. Among these authors, and perhaps the most well-known, is Stephen King. His publication of Carrie in 1974 was the first of sixty-one novels to be released up until 2020 with no signs of slowing. King’s narratives have kept the popular consciousness engrossed through his careful development of a fictional Maine with an entangled history that bleeds into each novel. In the middle and late 2010s, horror again resurfaced as not only a commercial work horse but as an ample source of cultural critique specifically surrounding racial dispossession and settler expansion. Get Out (2017), a film whose director – Jordan Peale – has called a social thriller, depicts internalized racism and neo-slavery in a “post-race” America. Peale’s second film, Us (2019), offers an embodiment of what W.E.B. Dubois 2 called Double Consciousness1 through a social program’s (Hands Across America) cloning of participants and these double’s ultimate fight to gain supremacy and identity over the original. Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) offers a tale of generational choices enacting present trauma whereas his next film, Midsommar (2019), explores the possibility for benevolent euthanasia and communal living in the midst of troublingly violent sacrifice. Blood Quantum (2019) depicts a world in which Canadian First Nations peoples must fend off a zombie apocalypse that their blood makes them immune to. The world constantly takes bites out of the edges of the First Nations and other Indigenous peoples’ land and horror gives the opportunity for not only an assertion of Indigenous strength and sovereignty but a reclamation of the reservation’s defensibility. Stephen King’s novels and films have also enjoyed this renaissance with remakes of both IT (2017 and 2019) and Pet Sematary (2019). Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians (2020) and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic (2020) are only two novels that have made significant critical impact. Television shows like The Haunting of Hill House (2019) and Lovecraft Country (2020) take horror novels previously written and exemplify the necessity for revisitation with added understanding of slavery, racial violence, and settler dispossession and the fear these works portray by capturing the public’s attention and using their platform to embody the lasting trauma of previously conceived notions of the gender roles of the nuclear family and the Jim Crow South. Revisiting horror can be seen as trauma work; the necessary action of reopening that which scared or harmed a person in order to shed light and face that fear, work towards mending their relationship with that memory, and start to carve out a new way forward. 1 Dubois, W.E.B. “Strivings
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Staff Picks – July 2017
    Staff Picks – July 2017 Some great reads for your summer pleasure! FOR KIDS A Hungry Lion (or a dwindling assortment of animals) / Lucy Ruth Cummings (Easy Fiction) - Natalie The very hungry lion is all set to enjoy an exciting day with his other animal pals. But all of a sudden his friends start disappearing at an alarming rate Is someone stealing the hungry lion's friends, or is the culprit a little...closer to home? Alcatraz versus the Knights of Crystallia / Brandon Sanderson (Junior Fiction) - Mary Anne When Alcatraz and Grandpa Smedry make a pilgrimage to the Free Kingdom city of Crystallia, the Smedry home base, Alcatraz is shocked to see that he is, in fact, a legend. When he was a baby he was stolen by the Evil Librarians, and his mother, a Librarian herself, was behind the whole scheme. Now, with his estranged father, Bastille, and Grandpa Smedry, Alcatraz tries to save a city under siege from the Librarians. FOR TEENS Six of Crows /Leigh Bardugo (Young Adult Fiction) – Kaela Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction--if they don't kill each other first. First in a series. Three Dark Crowns / Kendare Blake (Young Adult Fiction)– Hollie On the island of Fennbirn, triplet sisters who each wield a coveted magic skill and claim an equal right to the throne must fight to the death when they turn sixteen for the title of Queen Crowned. First in a series. FOR ADULTS Camino Island /John Grisham (New Fiction) - Felicia The most daring and devastating heist in literary history targets a high security vault located deep beneath Princeton University.Valued at $25 million (though some would say priceless) the five manuscripts of F Scott Fitzgerald's only novels are amongst the most valuable in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • The Key to Stephen King's the Dark Tower
    ANGLO-SAXON: THE KEY TO STEPHEN KING'S THE DARK TOWER ____________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, Chico ____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in English ____________ by Jennifer Dempsey Loman 2009 Summer 2009 ANGLO-SAXON: THE KEY TO STEPHEN KING'S THE DARK TOWER A Thesis by Jennifer Dempsey Loman Summer 2009 APPROVED BY THE INTERIM DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE, INTERNATIONAL, AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES: _________________________________ Mark J. Morlock, Ph.D. APPROVED BY THE GRADUATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: _________________________________ _________________________________ Rob G. Davidson, Ph.D. Harriet Spiegel, Ph.D., Chair Graduate Coordinator _________________________________ Geoffrey Baker, Ph.D. PUBLICATION RIGHTS No portion of this thesis may be reprinted or reproduced in any manner unacceptable to the usual copyright restrictions without the written permission of the author. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am so grateful to Drs. Harriet Spiegel, Lois Bueler, Carol Burr, and Geoff Baker. Your compassion, patience, accessibility, and encouragement went far beyond mere mentorship. I feel very fortunate to have had the honor to work with you all. I am so grateful to Drs. Rob Davidson, John Traver, and Aiping Zhang for their wise counsel. Thank you to Sharon Demeyer as well for her indefatigable congeniality. I thank Connor Trebra and Jen White for their calming camaraderie. I am so grateful to my parents, Jim and Penny Evans, and my grandmother, Jean Quesnel, for teaching me the importance of coupling work with integrity. I am so grateful to my dear husband, Ed, for his unconditional support of my efforts.
    [Show full text]
  • The Journal of Stephen King Studies, Issue 2
    The Journal of Stephen King Studies Winter 2019 1 2 The Journal of Stephen King Studies ————————————————————————————————— Issue 2: Halloween 2019 Artwork by Jane Peet—Instagram @jane_jep27 3 4 Editors: Dawn Stobbart Sorcha Ní Fhlainn Reviews Editor: Lauren Christie Founding Editor: Alan Gregory Fox Advisory Board: Xavier Aldana Reyes Linda Badley Brian Baker Simon Brown Steven Bruhm Regina Hansen Gary Hoppenstand Tony Magistrale Simon Marsden Patrick McAleer Bernice M. Muphy Philip L. Simpson Website: https://pennywisedreadful.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @pennywisedread/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pennywisedrea 5 6 Contents Editors Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...….p. 9 Unlocking Time: The Clock of Horrors in Stephen King’s The Shining, Leslie Savath ……………………...……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………p. 11 “The town knew about darkness”: An analysis of Stephen King’s treatment of small-town America in his novel ‘Salem’s Lot, Yann Teyssou …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….p. 28 The Once and Future Promised Land: Finding the Fisher King of Arthurian Legend in the Post-Apocalyptic American West of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, Vanessa Erat ……………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………p. 43 Shall I at least set my lands in order?: Arthurian Imagery and High Speech in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, Justin Lorenzo Biggi ……………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..p. 51 Review: Neil Mitchell, Devil’s
    [Show full text]
  • Western (Genre)
    Western (genre) http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/41275 The Western is a fiction genre seen in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in what became the Western United States (known as the American Old West or Wild West), but also in Western Canada, Mexico ("The Wild Bunch", "Vera Cruz"), Alaska ("The Far Country", "North to Alaska") and even Australia ("Quigley Down Under", "The Proposition"). Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 but most are set between the end of the American Civil War and the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, though there are several "late Westerns" (e.g., "The Wild Bunch" and "100 Rifles") set as late as the Mexican Revolution in 1913. There are also a number of films about Western- type characters in contemporary settings where they don't fit in, such as "Junior Bonner" set in the 1970s, and "Down in the Valley" and "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" in the 21st Century. Westerns often portray how primitive and obsolete ways of life confronted modern technological or social changes. This may be depicted by showing conflict between natives and settlers or U.S. Cavalry, or by showing ranchers being threatened by the onset of the Industrial Revolution. American Westerns of the 1940s and 1950s emphasise the values of honor and sacrifice. Westerns from the 1960s and 1970s often have more pessimistic view, glorifying a rebellious anti-hero and highlighting the cynicism, brutality and inequality of the American West.
    [Show full text]
  • Todo Es Eventual Stephen King Todo Es Eventual
    STEPHEN KING Todo es Eventual Stephen King Todo es eventual Traducción de Bettina Blanch Tyroller PLAZA & JANÉS Título original: Everything's Eventual Primera edición: octubre, 2003 © 2002, Stephen King Publicado por acuerdo con el autor, representado por Ralph M. Vicinanza © 2003, Random House Mondadori, S. A. © 2003, Bettina Blanch Tyroller, por la traducción Printed in Spain - Impreso en España ISBN: 84-01-32888-8 Depósito legal: M. 36.559 - 2003 AlexDumas(sábado, 29 de noviembre de 2003) 2 Stephen King Todo es eventual A Shane Leonard 3 Stephen King Todo es eventual ÍNDICE Lo que hice fue quitar todas las picas de una baraja de póquer y un comodín. Las cartas que iban del as al rey = 1-13. El comodín - 14. Barajé las cartas y las repartí. El orden en que salieron de la baraja fue el orden de las historias, basándome en el lugar que ocupaban en la lista que mi editor me envió. Así salió un bonito equilibrio entre las historias más literarias y las más humorísticas. Luego añadí una nota explicativa antes o después de cada historia, dependiendo de qué quedaba mejor. La siguiente compilación, con cartas del tarot. 4 Stephen King Todo es eventual PRÓLOGO LA PRÁCTICA DEL ARTE (CASI) PERDIDO Más de una vez he escrito sobre el goce de escribir y no veo la necesidad de volver sobre el mismo tema a estas alturas de la vida, pero he aquí una confesión: también me entrego al placer algo enloquecido que los aficionados experimentan con el aspecto comercial de mi trabajo. Me gusta pasarme de rosca, cruzar distintas especies mediáticas y probar lo más puntero.
    [Show full text]
  • Thesis Complete
    “BECAUSE SOME STORIES DO LIVE FOREVER”: STEPHEN KING’S THE DARK TOWER SERIES AS MODERN ROMANCE BY RACHEL MCMURRAY Submitted to the graduate degree program in English and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. ___________________________________ Chairperson Prof. Misty Schieberle ___________________________________ Prof. Giselle Anatol ___________________________________ Prof. Kathryn Conrad Date Defended: April 6, 2012 ii The Thesis Committee for RACHEL MCMURRAY certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: “BECAUSE SOME STORIES DO LIVE FOREVER”: STEPHEN KING’S THE DARK TOWER SERIES AS MODERN ROMANCE ________________________________ Chairperson Prof. Misty Schieberle Date approved: April 6, 2012 iii Abstract Stephen King’s Dark Tower series is a seven-volume work that contains elements from myths, fairy tales, American westerns, legends, popular culture, Gothic literature, and medieval romance. Few scholars have engaged with this series, most likely due to its recent completion in 2004 and its massive length, but those who do examine the Dark Tower focus on classifying its genre, with little success. As opposed to the work of the few scholars who have critically engaged with King’s work (and the smaller number still who have written about the Dark Tower), I will examine the ways in which he blends genres and then go further than scholars like Patrick McAleer, Heidi Strengell, James Egan, and Tony Magistrale, to argue that King’s use of motifs, character types, and structure has created his own contemporary version of a medieval romance in the Arthurian tradition. My analysis of King’s work through this lens of Arthurian romance crosses continents and centuries in an attempt to bring together medieval studies and contemporary American fiction.
    [Show full text]
  • An Antihero's Journey to the Dark Tower
    An Antihero‘s Journey to the Dark Tower Manifestations and Variations of the Hero‘s Journey in Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower Series Ritgerð til MA-prófs í Enskukennslu Sigríður Aðils Magnúsdóttir January 2019 Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Enska An Antihero‘s Journey to the Dark Tower Manifestations and Variations of the Hero‘s Journey in Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower Series Ritgerð til MA-prófs í Enskukennslu Sigríður Aðils Magnúsdóttir Kt.: 290182-4769 Leiðbeinandi: Dr. Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir January 2019 Acknowledgements Many people aided me in the completion of this thesis. Firstly, I would like to thank my sister, Ásrún, who convinced me to finish my master’s degree alongside her. There were times when I secretly cursed her name for tricking me onto this path of further education, though truly I am grateful, for even though the road has at times been difficult it has also been extremely rewarding. Ásrún has proven to be a great sounding board and an invaluable friend throughout this whole process and I am happy to share this experience with her. I would also like to thank my family, my husband and children, for their endless support and patience. My children were very understanding of their mother’s never-ending writing sessions throughout their summer holidays and my husband is an endless fountain of love and encouragement, he truly is my rock. I would also like to acknowledge my mother who has had to endure losing both her daughters at the same time into the abyss of academia, she too has been an invaluable support and a great friend.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dark Tower" - a Modern Myth
    2008:237 C-UPPSATS Stephen King´s "The Dark Tower" - a Modern Myth Henrik Fåhraeus Luleå tekniska universitet C-uppsats Engelska Institutionen för Språk och kultur 2008:237 - ISSN: 1402-1773 - ISRN: LTU-CUPP--08/237--SE Stephen King’s The Dark Tower – a Modern Myth C-Essay by Henrik Fåhraeus Supervisor: Billy Gray Table of Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1 Background......................................................................................................................... 3 The Elements of Myth ........................................................................................................ 6 The First Cycle – Roland’s Youth .................................................................................... 10 Initiation........................................................................................................................ 10 Separation ..................................................................................................................... 11 Return............................................................................................................................ 13 The Main Cycle – The Dark Tower.................................................................................. 15 Initiation........................................................................................................................ 15 Separation ....................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Rating Guide 27 5P; 28 12P Comedy Gomez, Morticia and Their Natasha
    park where the rides are designed with Elizabeth Hawthorne. (PG-13, 2:00) ’18 minimum safety for maximum fun. When SHOS-E 321 June 13 7:30a, TMC-E 327 a corporate mega-park opens nearby, June 1 5:15a, 10p; 9 11a; 17 6:15p; 20 D.C. and his loony crew of misfits must 7:45a; 28 2p; 29 4:30a, TMCX-E 328 adventurer and a botanist lead a Tibetan pull out all the stops to try and save the June 2 9:30a; 4 10p; 7 2:50p; 27 4:15p; A search for the legendary big-footed Yetis. day. Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius, 30 11:15a Dan Bakkedahl, Matt Schulze. (1:30) ’18 Abducted Suspense A war hero Forrest Tucker, Peter Cushing, Maureen Adventureland 555 Comedy-Drama 9 EPIX 380 June 13 6:30a, EPIX2 381 June takes matters into his own hands Connell, Richard Wattis. (1:30) ’57 A college grad takes a lowly job at an A FXM 384 June 10 4:30a, 11:50a; 16 7 5:40a, EPIXHIT 382 June 11 8:45a; 12 amusement park after his parents refuse when a kidnapper snatches his 8:05a; 25 8:20a young daughter during a home 11:50a; 27 9:35a; 28 6a to fund his long-anticipated trip to Europe. invasion. Scout Taylor-Compton, Daniel About a Boy 555 Comedy-Drama An An Actor Prepares Comedy After Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Joseph, Michael Urie, Najarra Townsend. irresponsible playboy becomes emotion- suffering a heart attack, a hard-drinking Starr, Kristen Wiig.
    [Show full text]
  • In the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh
    USCA11 Case: 19-11224 Date Filed: 02/23/2021 Page: 1 of 18 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-11224 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 3:17-cv-00348-HES-MCR BENJAMIN MICHAEL DUBAY, Plaintiff - Appellant, WILLIAM B. DUBAY, LLC, Plaintiff, versus STEPHEN KING, MEDIA RIGHTS CAPITAL, IMAGINE ENTERTAINMENT, SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT, MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT, et al., Defendants - Appellees. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida ________________________ (February 23, 2021) USCA11 Case: 19-11224 Date Filed: 02/23/2021 Page: 2 of 18 Before NEWSOM and BRANCH, Circuit Judges.* BRANCH, Circuit Judge: In this copyright infringement action, Benjamin DuBay appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Stephen King, Media Rights Capital, Imagine Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Marvel Entertainment, and Simon & Schuster (collectively, “King”). DuBay owns the copyright for a comic book series called The Rook, which recounted the adventures of Restin Dane. King is the author of The Dark Tower novel series, which features the character Roland Deschain as its protagonist. DuBay sued King for copyright infringement, alleging that Roland Deschain is a copy of Restin Dane. DuBay also sued the other defendants for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement for their respective roles in publishing King’s novel series and adapting the book series into graphic novels and a motion picture. After careful consideration and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm. I. BACKGROUND Because the parties are familiar with the facts of this case, we recount only those facts that are necessary to the disposition of this appeal.
    [Show full text]
  • Stephen King's the Dark Tower and the Postmodern Serial
    Trinity University Digital Commons @ Trinity English Honors Theses English Department 4-2-2008 Stephen King’s The aD rk Tower and the Postmodern Serial Jessica Waller Trinity University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/eng_honors Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Waller, Jessica, "Stephen King’s The aD rk Tower and the Postmodern Serial" (2008). English Honors Theses. 10. http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/eng_honors/10 This Thesis open access is brought to you for free and open access by the English Department at Digital Commons @ Trinity. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Trinity. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower and the Postmodern Serial Jessica Waller A departmental senior thesis submitted to the Department of English at Trinity University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with departmental honors. April 2, 2008 _________________________ _________________________ Thesis Advisor Department Chair _________________________ Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Student Copyright Declaration: the author has selected the following copyright provision: [ ] This thesis is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which allows some noncommercial copying and distribution of the thesis, given proper attribution. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA. [X] This thesis is protected under the provisions of U.S. Code Title 17. Any copying of this work other than “fair use” (17 USC 107) is prohibited without the copyright holder’s permission.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring the Dark Tower: Stephen King's Postmodern Epic
    ZESZYTY NAUKOWE UNIWERSYTETU RZESZOWSKIEGO SERIA FILOLOGICZNA ZESZYT 90 / 2015 STUDIA ANGLICA RESOVIENSIA 12 doi: 10.15584/sar.2015.12.12 Maroš BUDAY University of Prešov [email protected] EXPLORING THE DARK TOWER: STEPHEN KING’S POSTMODERN EPIC Abstract: This paper focuses on the postmodernist conceits of Stephen King’s postmodern epic, The Dark Tower series. In his septimology, King examines the very foundation of literary fiction as well as criticism by combining metafiction, intertextuality and the contemporary scientific multiple-worlds theory into a postmodernist chaos of information. King essentially presents a universal model which is composed of purely symbolic composites that encompass the four basic pillars of creating a written text, i.e. the author, objective reality, fictional universe, and language as a medium of written discourse. Furthermore, by dividing intertextuality into its intrinsic and extrinsic form, in combination with the multiple-worlds theory, King renders the opposition of high vs. low culture literature inert. He does so through the element of colliding fictional universes, therefore an act he positions in parallel with the flattening of the worlds of high and low culture, thus creating a vision of culture which functions on the principles of equality. Key words: Stephen King, The Dark Tower series, metafiction, intrinsic intertextuality, extrinsic intertextuality, multiple-worlds theory Introduction This paper deals with the culmination of King’s postmodernist literary tendencies in one ultimate literary piece. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series is comprised of several of the main characteristics of postmodern fiction. He combines elements of metafiction and intertextuality1 with the scientific concept of the multiple-worlds theory2.
    [Show full text]