Madness in Fiction [electronic resource] : Literary Essays from Poe to Fowles /
Axelrod-Sokolov, Mark.author.
This book examines one work from each of five prominent authors dealing with madness. Including discussion of Fowles, Hamsun, Hesse, Kafka, and Poe, it delineates the specific type of madness the author associates with each text, and explores the reason for that - such as a historical moment, physical pressure (such as starvation), or the author’s or his narrator’s perspective. The project approaches the texts it explores from the perspective of a writer of fiction as well as a critic, and discusses them as unique manifestations of literary madness, treating them stylistically as unique experiments. It is of particular note for readers of fiction, of literary criticism and to those interested in psychology.
1. A Mad Introduction, of Sorts -- 2. The Madness of Insult in Poe’s Cask of Amontillado -- 3. The Madness of Starvation in Hamsun’s Hunger -- 4. The Madness of Marginalization in Kafka’s Metamorphosis -- 5. The Madness of Madness in Hesse’s Steppenwolf -- 6. The Madness of Romantic Obsession in Fowles’ The Collector -- 7. A Mad Ending, of Sorts.
This book examines one work from each of five prominent authors dealing with madness. Including discussion of Fowles, Hamsun, Hesse, Kafka, and Poe, it delineates the specific type of madness the author associates with each text, and explores the reason for that - such as a historical moment, physical pressure (such as starvation), or the author’s or his narrator’s perspective. The project approaches the texts it explores from the perspective of a writer of fiction as well as a critic, and discusses them as unique manifestations of literary madness, treating them stylistically as unique experiments. It is of particular note for readers of fiction, of literary criticism and to those interested in psychology.
Fiction.
Literature, Modern-19th century.
Literature, Modern-20th century.
America-Literatures.
Fiction.
Nineteenth-Century Literature.
Twentieth-Century Literature.
North American Literature.