Excavating Stephen King: A Darwinist Hermeneutic Study of the Fiction

by James Arthur Anderson

Overview

Excavating Stephen King: A Darwinist Hermeneutic Study of the Fiction combines approaches from science and literary theory to examine the canon of Stephen King’s fiction work in a single critical study. James Arthur Anderson has devised the concept of Darwinist Hermeneutics as a critical tool to combine evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, biology, and literary Darwinism with other more conventional critical theory, including structuralism, narratology, semiotics, and linguistic analysis. Using this theory, Anderson examines King’s works in terms of archetypes and mythology, human universals, affective emotions, and the organization of story to create maximum suspense. This method brings new insights into King’s stories and broader implications for storytelling as a whole.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781793628626
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/28/2020
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

James Arthur Anderson is professor of writing and literature at Johnson & Wales University’s North Miami campus.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Stephen King, Fast Food or Five Star?

Part 1: Archetypes: Structuralism Meets Darwin

Chapter 1: The Hero’s Quest

Chapter 2: The Trickster: King’s Tricks and Treats

Chapter 3: In the Beginning… The Creation of the Multiverse

Chapter 4: Silenced by Science: the Anthropocene Apocalypse in Cell

Part 2: Human Universals

Chapter 5 : The Stand: Survival of the Ethical Fittest

Chapter 6: Religion: King as the “Dark Theologian"

Chapter 7: Free Will: Robots or Wildcards

Chapter 8: Time and 11/22/63

Chapter 9: Nostalgia and Things Past

Part 3: Affective Emotions

Chapter 10: The Battle of the Sexes

Chapter 11: What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Chapter 12: Family and Children

Chapter 13: Rage and Sweet Revenge

Chapter 14 : Fear: Why We Like Scary Stories

Part 4: Darwinism and the Arts

Chapter 15: The Symbolic Animal: Imagination and Creativity

Chapter 16: The Arts: Soothing the Savage Beast

Chapter 17: The Addiction of Language and Story

Chapter 18: The Thematic King

Chapter 19: The Literary King

Conclusion: Darwinist Hermeneutics and Stephen King

Works Cited

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Erudite, informatively insightful, impressively thoughtful and thought-provoking, "Excavating Stephen King: A Darwinist Hermeneutic Study of the Fiction" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended acquisition selection for college and university library Hermeneutic Literary Studies collections in general, and Stephen King supplemental studies lists in particular. This well organized and presented curriculum style textbook would be a useful template for similar studies of other literary figures.

Midwest Book Review

In the forty-six years since Carrie was published, Stephen King has had a prolific career, producing scores of novels and short stories. Critical books assessing his works started appearing in the early 1980s, and his stories started entering school and college curricula not long thereafter. Doctoral theses have been written about aspects of his work. Few books, though, have done as thorough a deep dive into literary criticism of King's novels as James Arthur Anderson has achieved in Excavating Stephen King. Although The Stand appears frequently in his analysis, Anderson covers the full range of King's works up to The Institute, including a thorough evaluation of the recent short story "Cookie Jar." He combines methods from the humanities and scientific fields such as neurology, evolutionary psychology, sociology and anthropology into a critical tool he calls Darwinist Hermeneutics. Even longtime fans of King's work may find themselves looking at his work in a different light after reading Excavating Stephen King.

Bev Vincent

James Anderson’s Excavating Stephen King is a welcomed addition to the ever-growing field of studies devoted to the work of the Master of the Macabre. Anderson is, above all else, a knowledgeable and refreshingly humble voice within the field (the conclusion to this text is worth the price of the entire book), and his genuinely unique approach to King’s creations allows us to see, with clear, specific, and exceptionally well-reasoned analyses, that being a Constant Reader is hardly an exercise in the “dumbing down of American culture,” as some snobbish critics have suggested. Indeed, with Anderson’s help, we are able to see King in a new light, and ourselves as well, which is to say that the spotlight Anderson provides here ultimately reveals a keen and critical understanding of the self. To put it another way, Anderson’s examination confirms King’s sentiments that “Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.

Patrick McAleer