Madness in Fiction - Literary Essays from Poe to Fowles

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.

List of contents

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.

About the author

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).

Product details

• Authors: Mark Axelrod-Sokolov
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 24.01.2019
• EAN: 9783030099640
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3009964-0
• No. of pages: 98
• Dimensions: 148 mm x 6 mm x 210 mm
• Weight: 162 g
• Illustrations: XV, 98 p.
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; C, Nordamerika (USA und Kanada), Literatur: Geschichte und Kritik, Fiction, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature: history & criticism, North America (USA and Canada), Literature, Modern—19th century, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Literature, Modern—20th century, Twentieth-Century Literature, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Fiction Literature, America—Literatures, North American Literature