"Escape from the prison-house of the known": reading weird fiction in its historical contexts

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dc.contributor.authorReilly, Géza Arthur George
dc.contributor.examiningcommitteeJoo, Serenity (English, Film, and Theatre) McCance, Dawne (Religion) Bruhm, Steven (University of Western Ontario)en_US
dc.contributor.supervisorTromly, Lucas (English, Film, and Theatre)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-10-29T19:07:05Z
dc.date.available2014-10-29T19:07:05Z
dc.date.issued2014-10-29
dc.degree.disciplineEnglish, Film and Theatreen_US
dc.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)en_US
dc.description.abstractWeird fiction criticism has been largely focused on either analyzing texts via the biographies of weird fiction authors, or concentrating on the words on the page to a degree that ignores all outside context. Although these approaches are valuable, more utility is to be found in analyzing weird fictions via their specific historical locations. This dissertation demonstrates the validity of this approach by surveying the works of five American weird fiction authors from the Twentieth Century (Lovecraft, Smith, Howard, Bloch, and Ligotti), and giving new interpretations that are based on an understanding of their placement within specific historical milieus (respectively, anti-WWI sentiment, surrealism and the problem of representation, Southern and Southwestern regionalism, pastiche and publishing culture, and metafiction and genre fiction). This survey supports the need for a new critical approach to weird fiction as described in this dissertation, and furthers our understanding of weird fiction by investigating hitherto unexplored perspectives on weird texts.en_US
dc.description.noteFebruary 2015en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1993/24451
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsopen accessen_US
dc.subjectgenreen_US
dc.subjectweirden_US
dc.subjectAmericanen_US
dc.subjecthorroren_US
dc.subjectLovecraften_US
dc.subjectSmithen_US
dc.subjectHowarden_US
dc.subjectBlochen_US
dc.subjectLigottien_US
dc.subjecthistoricalen_US
dc.subjectmodernen_US
dc.subjectfantasticen_US
dc.subjectpasticheen_US
dc.subjectWWIen_US
dc.subjectmetafictionen_US
dc.subjectsurrealismen_US
dc.subjectregionalismen_US
dc.subjectfictionen_US
dc.title"Escape from the prison-house of the known": reading weird fiction in its historical contextsen_US
dc.typedoctoral thesisen_US
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