Madness in Fiction

This book examines one work dealing with madness from each of five prominent authors. 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 from the perspective of a critic, and discusses them as unique manifestations of literary madness. It is of particular significance for those interested in the interplay of fiction, literary criticism, and psychology.

Provides a sustained examination of canonical writers from a unique point of view - via the notion of madness Examines a range of European and North American writers Provides both a writer's perspective and a critic's perspective, since the author writes both fiction and criticism

Autorentext
Mark Axelrod is Professor of Comparative Literature in the Department of English at Chapman University, USA, Director of the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing, and Editor of Mantissa, the literary journal of the Fowles Center. He has won a number of fiction and film awards, as well as Fulbrights and NEA grants, and has published extensively in fiction, non-fiction, film, and literary criticism. His publications include Poetics of Prose (Palgrave, 2016) and Notions of the Feminine (Palgrave, 2015).

Klappentext
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.

Inhalt

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.