Rebecca Frost

The Functions of Unnatural Death in Stephen King (eBook, ePUB)

Murder, Sickness, and Plots

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

The Functions of Unnatural Death in Stephen King: Murder, Sickness, and Plots examines over thirty of King's works and looks at the character deaths within them, placing them first within the chronology of the plot and then assigning them a function. Death is horrific and perhaps the only universal horror because it comes to us all. Stephen King, known as the Master of Horror, rarely writes without including death in his works. However, he keeps death from being repetitious or fully expected because of the ways in which he plays with the subject, maintaining what he himself has called a childlike approach to death. Although character deaths are a constant, the narrative function of those deaths changes depending on their placement within the plot. By separating out the purposes of early deaths from those that come during the rising action or during the climax, this book examines the myriad ways character deaths in King can affect surviving characters and therefore the plot. Even though character deaths are frequent and hardly ever occur only once in a book, King's varying approaches to, and uses of, these deaths show how he continues to play with both the subject and its facets of horror throughout his work.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury eBooks US
• Seitenzahl: 208
• Erscheinungstermin: 2. März 2022
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781793646224
• Artikelnr.: 63556650

Autorenporträt

By Rebecca Frost and Rebecca Frost

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction: "Death is When the Monsters Get You"
Chapter One: "It's Not Really Her Anymore": Creating the Threat
Chapter Two: "You Know About the Cycle?": To Perpetuate the Monster
Chapter Three: "People Are Mortal": To Build Suspense
Chapter Four: "I Saved My Book By Blowing Approximately Half its Major
Characters to Smithereens": To Narrow the Focus
Chapter Five: "Question: Death, Where is Thy Sting? Answer:
Every-fucking-where": To Urge the Characters on to Action
Chapter Six: "More Than Any of us Probably Know, She Hurt": As Revenge
Chapter Seven: "What if He Has a Helper?": As Renfield
Chapter Eight: "I Want to Die Well": As Heroic Sacrifice
Chapter Nine: "It Could Destroy Everything": To Restore Order
Conclusion: "It Seemed to Mean Something": Confronting Death and
Multifaceted Horror
Bibliography
About the Author