Shirley Jackson's American Gothic

by Darryl Hattenhauer

Overview

Argues that Jackson's anticipation of postmodernism ranks her among the most significant writers of her time.

Best known for her short story "The Lottery" and her novel The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson produced a body of work that is more varied and complex than critics have realized. In fact, as Darryl Hattenhauer argues here, Jackson was one of the few writers to anticipate the transition from modernism to postmodernism, and therefore ranks among the most significant writers of her time. The first comprehensive study of all of Jackson's fiction, Shirley Jackson's American Gothic offers readers the chance not only to rediscover her work, but also to see how and why a major American writer was passed over for inclusion in the canon of American literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791456071
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	01/16/2003
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Darryl Hattenhauer is Associate Professor of English at Arizona State University West.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments


Introduction: Shirley Jackson and Proto-Postmodernism


1. Some Conditions of Production


2. The Lottery or, The Adventures of James Harris (1949)


3. Come Along with Me: Part of a Novel, Sixteen Stories, and Three Lectures (1968)


4. Just an Ordinary Day (1996)


5. The Road Through the Wall (1948)


6. Hangsaman (1951)


7. The Bird’s Nest (1954)


8. The Sundial (1958)


9. The Haunting of Hill House (1959)


10. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962)


Afterword


Notes


Works Cited


Index