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Under the shadow of gray clouds, three children venture into the woods, where they spot the corpse of an old man on a scaffold. Suddenly a wild figure emerges, with long fingernails and tangled hair. It is the Hattak fullih nipi foni, the bone picker, who comes to tear off rotting flesh with his fingernails. Only the Choctaws who adhere to the old ways will speak of him. The frightening bone picker is just one of many entities, scary and mysterious, who lurk behind every page of this spine-tingling collection of Native fiction, written by award-winning Choctaw author Devon A. Mihesuah. Choctaw lore features a large pantheon of deities. These beings created the first people, taught them how to hunt, and warned them of impending danger. Their stories are not meant simply to entertain: each entity has a purpose in its behavior and a lesson to share—to those who take heed. As a Choctaw citizen, with deep ties to Indian Territory and Oklahoma, Mihesuah grew up hearing the stories of her ancestors. In the tradition of Native storytelling, she spins tales that move back and forth fluidly across time. The ancient beings, we discover, followed the tribe from their original homelands in Mississippi and are now ever-present influences on tribal consciousness. While some of the horrors told here are “real life” in nature, the art of fiction that Mihesuah employs reveals surprising outcomes or alternative histories. It turns out the things that scare us the most can lead to the answers we are seeking and even ensure our very survival.

Là-haut (1891) est un roman ébauché de Joris-Karl Huysmans dont le premier manuscrit ne fut publié intégralement qu'en 2021. On y retrouve Durtal, dandy quadragénaire blasé déjà présent dans Là-bas (publié en 1891). Alors que Là-bas reflétait le décadentisme sataniste incarné par Hyacinthe Chantelouve, femme fatale et profanatrice dont l'étreinte déçoit finalement Durtal, Là-haut met en scène la sensuelle et solaire Florence. La jeune courtisane perverse captive un Durtal irrésistiblement attiré par la splendeur du catholicisme, mais sans volonté pour décider entre la chair et la foi. Là-haut est le récit d'une lutte à mort entre le désir et le mysticisme. L'apparition de la Sainte Vierge à La Salette est au centre d'une tension paroxystique entre religion et sensualité qui déchire Durtal.

Women authors have explored fantasy fiction in ways that connect with feminist narrative theories, as examined here by Katherine J. Weese in seven modern novels. These include Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle, Iris Murdoch's The Sea, the Sea, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, Carol Shields's The Stone Diaries, Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, and Toni Morrison's Beloved and Paradise. The fantastic devices highlight various feminist narrative concerns such as the authority of the female voice, the implications of narrative form for gender construction, revisions to traditional genre conventions by women writers, and the recovery of alternative versions of stories suppressed by dominant historical narratives. Weese also frames the fantastic elements in the scope of traditional fictional structure. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

This volume explores the cultural meaning of several supernatural creatures in Arabia, tracing the historical development of these creatures and their recent representations in the Western world. Utilizing a variety of old and new Arabic, English and French sources, the text explores creatures including the Ghoul and its derivations, the Rukh bird, and the dragon. Unlike other texts, which primarily focus on Genies or Jinns, this volume explores other supernatural and mythical creatures that have been popular in the Middle East and Arabia for centuries but are less known to Western audiences. Dr. Al-Rawi argues that many of these creatures have pre-Islamic roots, and that they served an important function in connecting the past with the present, offering a popular vehicle to articulate and imagine the supernatural dimension of existence which helps in consolidating religious views.

Spectrality in Modernist Fiction argues that key modernist writers, chiefly Conrad, Forster, Butts, and Bowen, use spectral rhetoric to tackle problems of sex and sexuality, revolution, imperialism, capitalism, and desire all through complicated ethical engagements. These engagements invariably come packaged in, and are shaped by, the language of spectrality. In its capacity to articulate a particular sort of relationship between the past, the present and the future, the spectral concerns the basic question of how to proceed, how to live with-maybe even address-ethical indeterminacy. Whether their spectral rhetoric traces the logics of capitalist possession (Conrad), queer'friendship'and paganized Christianity (Forster), regressive politics haunted by historical traumas (Butts), or the devious passages of perverse desire (Bowen), these writers locate something like hope in their ghosts. The ethical and political impasses they chart through their spectral rhetoric are not final, but temporary, and the drive to overcome them constitutes a tensile optimism.

This book reconsiders the place of magic at the foundations of modernity. Through careful close reading of plays, spell books, philosophical treatises, and witch trial narratives, Andrew Moore shows us that magic was ubiquitous in early modern England. Rather than a “decline of magic,” this study traces a broad cultural fascination with supernatural power. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, poets, philosophers, jurists, and monarchs debated the reality and the morality of magic, and, by extension, the limits of human power. In this way, early modern English writing about magic was closely related to the scientific and political philosophical writing from the period, which was likewise reimagining humanity's relationship to nature. Moore reads Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan alongside contemporary writing by the notorious witch hunters Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne. He reminds us that Francis Bacon's scientific works were addressed to King James I, whose own Dæmonologie insists on the reality of witchcraft. The fantastical science fiction of Margaret Cavendish, he argues, must be understood within a tradition that includes works like Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and the peculiar autobiography of criminal astrologer Simon Forman. By considering these disparate works together Moore reveals the centrality of magic to the early modern project.

Cet ouvrage est une réflexion approfondie sur une question transversale des littératures d'Afrique : le châtiment surnaturel. S'appuyant sur des voies invisibles, le surnaturel se déploie pour venger des crimes commis contre plusieurs pans de l'édifice traditionnel. Sont mobilisés dans cette action : les sorciers, la nature, les dieux, les ancêtres et d'autres forces invisibles. Après analyse des thématiques sous-jacentes à la problématique du châtiment surnaturel, telles que le statut de la femme dans une société soumise aux lois magiques, le débat sur les traditions et la sorcellerie dans l'Afrique actuelle, la recherche débouche sur une perspective originale inspirée de la littérature : le recours au surnaturel comme une option désormais fondamentale pour le développement de l'Afrique. L'auteur envisage cette démarche dans un nouveau concept qu'il appelle sorciologie et qu'il définit comme l'étude scientifique de la sorcellerie dans la perspective du développement de l'Afrique.

In the cultural and highly intellectual climate of the Age of Reason, it comes as no surprise that the supernatural was under scrutiny. However, a complete denial of the persistence of beliefs in the supernatural world means neglecting a consistent part of the cultural and literary atmosphere of those years. On this note, this book investigates the fate of Shakespearean supernatural dimensions in the widespread eighteenth-century practice of “making Shakespeare fit”.Taking examples from both the “adapted” and “restored” versions of Macbeth, Hamlet and The Tempest by Davenant and Garrick, the book highlights how the contemporary attitude towards the supernatural combined with the issue of the general relationship with Shakespeare at the time. In particular, it identifies and explores two main strategies which are employed to “rationalize” the supernatural dimensions of those plays: either their omission or replacement or their aestheticization (and spectacularization). The former is nothing but a manifestation of contempt towards the supernatural which aims at exalting the rational; the latter is the result of undercover fascination which transforms the supernatural into theatrical entertainment.

This book offers queer readings of Chinese Qing Dynasty zhiguai, ‘strange tales', a genre featuring supernatural characters and events. In a unique approach interweaving Chinese philosophies alongside critical theories, this book explores tales which speak to contemporary debates around identity and power. Depictions of porous boundaries between humans and animals, transformations between genders, diverse sexualities, and contextually unusual masculinities and femininities, lend such tales to queer readings. Unlike previous scholarship on characters as allegorical figures or stories as morality tales, this book draws on queer theory, animal studies, feminism, and Deleuzian philosophy, to explore the ‘strange'and its potential for social critique. Examining such tales enriches the scope of historic queer world literatures, offering culturally situated stories of relationships, desires, and ways of being, that both speak to and challenge contemporary debates.

This book examines haunting in terms of trauma, languaging, and the supernatural in works by Chinese Australian writers born in Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. It goes beyond the conventional focus on identity issues in the analysis of diasporic writing, considering how the memory of past trauma is triggered by abusive systems of power in the present. The author unpacks how trauma also brings past violence to haunt the present. This book considers how different Chinese diasporic communities present a dynamic and multiple state through partial erasure between different Chinese subcultures and other cultures.Showing the supernatural as a social and cultural product, this book elucidates how haunting as the supernatural refers to the coexistence of, and the competition between, different cultures and powers. It takes a wide-ranging view of different diasporic communities under the banner ‘Chinese', a term that refers not only to Chinese nationals in terms of citizenship, but also to the Chinese diaspora in terms of ancestry, and Chinese culture more generally. In analysing haunting in texts, the author positions Chinese culture as in a constant state of flux. It is relevant to literary scholars and students with interests in Australian literature, Chinese and Southeast Asian migration writing, and those with an interest in the Gothic and postcolonial traditions.

The first extended study of supernatural discourse in Old English poetry, Supernatural Speakers in Old English Verse fills a conspicuous gap in the scholarship of early medieval literature. Drawing insights from various disciplines, including critical discourse analysis, social psychology, and oral poetry studies, Supernatural Speakers demonstrates how and why three poets—the poets of Genesis A, Christ C, and Guthlac A—marshalled their distinction as experts of the Old English poetic medium to perform the power of supernatural speech by means of masterful poetics. By offering new analytical paths through these early medieval poems, Supernatural Speakers elucidates the importance of poetics as a critical window on the social and religious functions of verbal art in early medieval England.

This book proposes a comparative approach to the supernatural short stories of Machado de Assis, Henry James and Guy de Maupassant. It offers an alternative to predominantly novel-centric and Anglo-centric perspectives on literary pre-modernism by investigating a transnational and multilingual connection between genre, theme and theory, i.e., between the modern short story, the supernatural and the problem of knowledge. Incorporating a close analysis of the literary texts into a discussion of their historical context, the book argues that Machado, James and Maupassant explore and reinvent the supernatural short story as a metafictional genre. This modernized and innovative form allows them to challenge the dichotomies and conventions of realist and supernatural fiction, inviting their past and present readers to question common assumptions on reality and literary representation.

This book examines how the representation of the ghost-soldier in literature published between 1914–1934, both marks the presence of trauma and attempts to make sense of it. Andrew Smith examines short stories, novels, poems and memoirs that employ ghosts to reflect upon feelings of loss, paralleling the literary context with accounts of shell-shock which construe the damaged soldier as psychologically missing and therefore spectre-like.The author argues that literary and non-literary texts repeatedly deploy a form of the uncanny, familiar from a Gothic tradition, as a way of reflecting upon grief. In support of this claim, he draws on fiction by well-known authors such as M. R. James, E. F. Benson, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Dennis Wheatley, alongside largely forgotten contributions to The Strand and other periodical publications such as The Occult Review.

Taking a broad interpretation of “supernatural” to include anything beyond nature, Global Perspectives on the Liminality of the Supernatural examines the liminality of often-overlooked types of supernatural beings in light of the themes of death and gender. It gives the reader a tour of the continents and takes them out into space, looking at popular culture and mythologies to propose answers to fundamental anthropological questions about humanity, the concept of “dead,” and how we relate to our own genders when using the supernatural to understand them.

In this classic novella from horror and fantasy luminary H.P. Lovecraft, geology professor William Dyer recounts a harrowing expedition to Antarctica. The research trip uncovered a series of strange fossils, the likes of which had never before been encountered. This leads the scientists to even more mysterious discoveries, including evidence of an ancient civilization. As part of our mission to publish great works of literary fiction and nonfiction, Sheba Blake Publishing Corp. is extremely dedicated to bringing to the forefront the amazing works of long dead and truly talented authors.

The Urban Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century European Literature explores transnational perspectives of modern city life in Europe by engaging with the fantastic tropes and metaphors used by writers of short fiction. Focusing on the literary city and literary representations of urban experience throughout the nineteenth century, the works discussed incorporate supernatural occurrences in a European city and the supernatural of these stories stems from and belongs to the city. The argument is structured around three primary themes. “Architectures”, “Encounters” and “Rhythms” make reference to three axes of city life: material space, human encounters, and movement. This thematic approach highlights cultural continuities and thus supports the use of the label of “urban fantastic” within and across the European traditions studied here.

Immerse yourself in Shakespeare's magical world, filled with supernatural encounters with faeries, ghosts and witches. Frolic with royalty, wander through forests, and experience love layered with enchantment. The Bard's use of these fantastical phenomena has had a tremendous and enduring influence on authors and audiences for more than four centuries. But what are their origins? Explore the folk beliefs and literary sources that influenced Shakespeare and discover how he assembled his own masterful portraits of these phenomena, giving his plays vibrant life and his characters unforgettable personalities.

Stephen King frequently places his human characters in danger against a supernatural antagonist. These characters, being realists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, must first overcome their disbelief at what is happening to them, and then decide what to do about it. Both their explanations for the strange happenings and their attempts to deal with them can be divided into four main categories: cultural appropriation; Christianity, especially Catholic rites; attempts at utter destruction; and a resignation to simply live--or die--with the supernatural intact. This book examines over 30 of King's works, revealing that the overall success of the characters in removing the supernatural threat from their towns, or perhaps defeating it entirely, does not depend fully on which of these four paths of action they choose. It is possible for any attempt to destroy the supernatural threat to fail, and what works in one of King's books will not have the same outcome in another. For King, the most likely success comes when his characters can choose a course of action that allows them to stand and be true to themselves.

Hitherto classified as a form of genre fiction, or as a particular aesthetic quality of literature by H. P. Lovecraft, the weird has now come to refer to a broad spectrum of artistic practices and expressions including fiction, film, television, photography, music, and visual and performance art. Largely under-theorized so far, The American Weird brings together perspectives from literary, cultural, media and film studies, and from philosophy, to provide a thorough exploration of the weird mode. Separated into two sections – the first exploring the concept of the weird and the second how it is applied through various media – this book generates new approaches to fundamental questions: Can the weird be conceptualized as a generic category, as an aesthetic mode or as an epistemological position? May the weird be thought through in similar ways to what Sianne Ngai calls the zany, the cute, and the interesting? What are the transformations it has undergone aesthetically and politically since its inception in the early twentieth century? Which strands of contemporary critical theory and philosophy have engaged in a dialogue with the discourses of and on the weird? And what is specifically “American” about this aesthetic mode?As the first comprehensive, interdisciplinary study of the weird, this book not only explores the writings of Lovecraft, Caitlín Kiernan, China Miéville, and Jeff VanderMeer, but also the graphic novels of Alan Moore, the music of Captain Beefheart, the television show Twin Peaks and the films of Lily Amirpour, Matthew Barney, David Lynch, and Jordan Peele.

Since the 1990s, the virus and the network metaphors have become increasingly popular, finding application in a broad range of everyday discourses, academic disciplines, and fiction genres. In this book, Rahel Sixta Schmitz defines and discusses a trope recurring in Gothic fiction: the supernatural media virus. This trope comprises the confluence of the virus, the network, and a deep, underlying media anxiety. This study shows how Gothic narratives such as House of Leaves or The Ring feature the supernatural media virus to negotiate as well as actively shape imaginations of the network society and the dangers of a globalized, technologized world.

Through mainly a New Historicist critical approach, this book explores how Shakespeare and Achebe employ supernatural devices such as prophecies, dreams, gods/goddesses, beliefs, and divinations to create complex characters. Even though these features indicate the preponderance of the belief in the supernatural by some people of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and traditional Igbo societies, Shakespeare and Achebe primarily use the supernatural to represent the states of mind of their protagonists. Both writers appropriate supernatural features to mirror tragic flaws such as ambition, arrogance, impulsiveness, and fear that contribute to the downfall of Macbeth, Lear, Okonkwo, and Ezeulu. We relate to some of these characters because they project our inner minds, principal drives that may be hidden within us. Therefore, Shakespeare and Achebe's preoccupation with the supernatural adds subtlety to their characterization and enhances their readability by situating their art beyond time, place, or particularity.

This book describes aspects of the concept of the supernatural from the intellectual history of Euro-American cultures. These samplings shed light on issues in the study of religions and religion rather than attempting to provide either a lineally coherent or exhaustive account of a somewhat fraught and complicated notion. Observations include uses of the term among the ancient Greeks and medieval Christian theologians and 19th- and 20th-century social scientists. This book highlights more recent academics who draw on the cognitive and evolutionary sciences in attempting to make sense of recurrent features of the representations and meta-representations of different cultures. This includes such counter-intuitive notions as “the mysterious” among the Wayuu of Columbia and Venezuela and “vampires” in Europe and North America. These observations are concluded in a final essay – “Toward a Realistic and Relevant Science of Religion” – which presents considered opinions on how we might draw on the cognitive and evolutionary sciences to establish the foundations for a genuinely scientific study of religions and religion.Benson Saler sadly passed away shortly after writing this book. An appreciation of his work, written by Armin W. Geertz, is included in this volume.

Although fantasy and supernatural literature have long and celebrated histories, many critics contend that the fantastic and the supernatural have no place in the logical, rational, world of the detective story. This book is the first extensive study of the fantastic in detective fiction and it explores the highly debated question of whether detective fiction and the fantastic can comfortably coexist. The'locked room'mystery--which often uses the fantastic as a red herring to eventually be debunked by reason and logic--has long been among the most popular subgenres of detective fiction. This book also explores stories featuring almost supernaturally gifted detectives, stories where the supernatural is truly encountered, and stories with ambiguous endings. Close to 500 detective stories from 1841 to 2000, in which the fantastic or supernatural plays a central role, are discussed and analyzed. Although not all the stories are judged to be successful as detective tales, in the great majority, the fantastic enlivens the tale and deepens the mystery without weakening the detective elements.

Mountain Witches is a comprehensive guide to the complex figure of yamauba—female yōkai often translated as mountain witches, who are commonly described as tall, enigmatic women with long hair, piercing eyes, and large mouths that open from ear to ear and who live in the mountains—and the evolution of their roles and significance in Japanese culture and society from the premodern era to the present. In recent years yamauba have attracted much attention among scholars of women's literature as women unconstrained by conformative norms or social expectations, but this is the first book to demonstrate how these figures contribute to folklore, Japanese studies, cultural studies, and gender studies. Situating the yamauba within the construct of yōkai and archetypes, Noriko T. Reider investigates the yamauba attributes through the examination of narratives including folktales, literary works, legends, modern fiction, manga, and anime. She traces the lineage of a yamauba image from the seventh-century text Kojiki to the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, and explores its emergence as well as its various, often conflicting, characteristics. Reider also examines the adaptation and re-creation of the prototype in diverse media such as modern fiction, film, manga, anime, and fashion in relation to the changing status of women in Japanese society. Offering a comprehensive overview of the development of the yamauba as a literary and mythic trope, Mountain Witches is a study of an archetype that endures in Japanese media and folklore. It will be valuable to students, scholars, and the general reader interested in folklore, Japanese literature, demonology, history, anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies, and the visual and performing arts.

Every reader of literature interprets the literary text on the basis of information they have acquired from previous reading, and according to norms they have established, either consciously or not, with regard to a work of literature. In this study, originally published in 1985, the author clarifies the concepts of magical realism and the fantastic, and establishes a series of guidelines that will allow us to distinguish between the two similar yet independent modes. The reader will thus be able to identify the implicit framework upon which the author of the fantastic and of magical realism bases their text.

Empathy and the Phantasmic in Ethnic American Trauma Narratives examines a burgeoning genre of ethnic American literature called phantasmic trauma narratives, which use culturally specific modes of the supernatural to connect readers to historical traumas such as slavery and genocide. Drawing on trauma theory and using an ethnic studies methodology, this book shows how phantasmic novels and films present historical trauma in ways that seek to invite reader/viewer empathy about the cultural groups represented. In so doing, the author argues that these texts also provide models of interracial alliances to encourage contemporary cross-cultural engagement as a restorative response to historical traumas. Further, the author examines how these narratives function as sites of cultural memory that provide a critical purchase on the enormity of enslavement, genocide, and dispossession.

Kniha nabízí rozbor prozaické tvorby portugalských spisovatelů Branquinha da Fonseky (1905–1974) a Domingose Monteira (1903–1980) z hlediska modality „neobvyklého“, známé v románských jazycích pod termínem „insólito” (fr. insolite). Teoretické vymezení konceptu se inspiruje především výzkumem brazilských badatelů, pro něž se jedná o modalitu sloužící k literárnímu vyjádření něčeho mimořádného, nadpřirozeného či nepřirozeného, jehož účinkem je údiv, strach, nejistota či neklid. Současně se zde přihlíží k vymezení kategorie „neobvyklého“ coby všeho ne-typického. Všechny představené prózy vynikají určitým stupněm neobvyklosti: jedná se o inspiraci folklorem (motivy přízraku, bílého vlka a pokladu), obrazy dvojnictví, paranormální jevy a motivy děsivé džungle či strašidelného domu. Zatímco dílo Branquinha da Fonseky je již nějakou dobu v Portugalsku poměrně známé, tvorba Domingose Monteira není v současnosti dostatečně zpracována. Tato kniha si tudíž klade za cíl dílo tohoto rodáka z provincie Trás-os-Montes jednak detailněji popsat a analyzovat, jednak postavit vedle díla Branquinha da Fonseky. Kniha rovněž přispívá ke studiu tvorby Branquinha da Fonseky z perspektivy, která prozatím nebyla podrobněji zkoumána.

Two of Lovecraft's best essays on the subject of supernatural horror fiction and how to write it. Within these essays, Lovecraft explores the origins and traditions of the genre in Britain, America and beyond with special reference to the most notable movements, themes, motifs, techniques, and writers past and present. A unique little book highly recommended for readers and writers interested in Lovecraft's literature and writing style. Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American writer of supernatural horror fiction. Though his works remained largely unknown and did not furnish him with a decent living, Lovecraft is today considered to be among the most significant writers of supernatural horror fiction of the twentieth century. Contents include: “Supernatural Horror in Literature” and “Notes on Writing Weird Fiction”. Other notable works by this author include: “The Call of Cthulhu”, “The Rats in the Walls”, and “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. Read & Co. Books is publishing this brand new collection of essays complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

Nuevos fantasmas recorren México propone nuevas aproximaciones al estudio de lo fantasmal en la literatura del siglo XXI mexicana en la obra de ocho autores contemporáneos. Guadalupe Nettel, Valeria Luiselli, Yuri Herrera, Emiliano Monge, Daniel Sada, Élmer Mendoza, Julián Herbert y Carmen Boullosa plantean, de maneras distintas, la representación de un fantasma real, existente y tangible. Para ello usan la forma del inmigrante, del doble (Doppelgänger), de la mujer cuya obra no es leída ni considerada, de las personas que viven sin un propósito en lugares fronterizos y no se sienten parte de lugar alguno. A diferencia de los fantasmas etéreos, característicos de obras como Aura de Carlos Fuentes, o de las almas en pena de Pedro Páramo de Juan Rulfo, o de cualquiera de las apariciones de los cuentos de Francisco Tario, la fantasmagoría en los autores aquí analizados es una tendencia, opción representacional y recurso estético de la narrativa mexicana del siglo XXI. Se trata de un recurso mediante el cual los escritores buscan interpretar una realidad política, histórica, cultural e identitaria: la creación de fantasmas reales, a quienes el sistema trata como si fueran una aparición, un vacío, una corporeidad hueca; como si no fueran nada.

An interdisciplinary engagement with the forest and its monsters through critical readings of folklore, fiction, film, music video and animation.Within the text there are a multitude of convergent critical perspectives used to engage and explore fictional and real monsters of the forest in media and folklore. The collection features chapters from a variety of academic perspectives: film and media studies, cultural studies, queer theory, Tolkien studies, mythology and popular music are featured. Under examination are a wide range of narratives and media forms that represent, reimagine and create the werewolves, witches and weird apparitions that inhabit the forest, along with the forest as a monstrous entity in itself.Whether they be our shelter and safe-haven or the domain of malevolent spirits and sprites, forests have the capacity to horrify and threaten those that venture into them without permission. Human interference has continually threatened forests across the world, yet this threat is reversed in myth, folklore and more recent cultural forms. This collection ranges widely to analyze how forests figure in contemporary culture, as well as the wider contexts in which such representations are inserted.

Great modern American supernaturalist brilliantly surveys history of genre to 1930s, summarizing, evaluating scores of books, including works by Poe, Bierce, M.R. James,'Monk'Lewis, many others. Praised by critics as diverse as Edmund Wilson and Vincent Starrett.

A surrealist exploration of the marvelous in ancient, classic, and modern works from around the world • Long considered one of the most significant and original books to have come out of the surrealist movement • Reveals the “marvelous” in works from William Blake, Edgar Allen Poe, William Shakespeare, Chrétien de Troyes, and Arthur Rimbaud; legends and folktales from around the world; classics from Ovid, Plato, and Apuleius; Masonic ritual texts, Mesopotamia's Epic of Gilgamesh, the Popol-Vuh, Lewis Caroll's Alice through the Looking Glass, Solomon's Song of Songs, and Goethe's Faust First published in French as Miroir du merveilleux in 1940, Mirror of the Marvelous has long been considered one of the most significant and original books to have come out of the surrealist movement and Anaïs Nin suggested it as a source of inspiration, far ahead of its time. Drawing on sacred and modern texts that share a quality of the marvelous, Pierre Mabille defines “the marvelous” as the point at which inner and outer realities are joined and the individual is simultaneously one with himself and with the world, thus recovering the true sense of the sacred. He shows how “the marvelous” goes beyond simply being a synonym for “the fantastic” to engage the entire emotional realm. Mabille cites a far-reaching range of texts, from the classic to the obscure, from Egyptian myth to Voodoo initiation ceremonies, from the ancient epic to the modern poem, from the creation myth to more contemporary visions of apocalypse. He includes surrealist analyses of works from William Blake, Edgar Allen Poe, William Shakespeare, Chrétien de Troyes, and Arthur Rimbaud; legends and folktales from Egypt, Iceland, Mexico, Africa, India, and other cultures; classics from Ovid, Plato, and Apuleius; Masonic ritual texts, Mesopotamia's Epic of Gilgamesh, the Popol-Vuh, Lewis Caroll's Alice through the Looking Glass, Solomon's Song of Songs, and selections from Goethe's Faust. Mirror of the Marvelous actively defines the flame of the marvelous by showing its presence in those works where it burns the brightest.

This collection of essays examines the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft's most important critical work, Supernatural Horror in Literature. Each chapter illuminates a crucial aspect of Lovecraft's criticism, from its aesthetic, philosophical and literary sources, to its psychobiological underpinnings, to its pervasive influence on the conception and course of horror and weird literature through the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. These essays investigate the meaning of cosmic horror before and after Lovecraft, explore his critical relevance to contemporary social science, feminist and queer readings of his work, and ultimately reveal Lovecraft's importance for contemporary speculative philosophy, film and literature.

At the Mountains of Madness is a novella by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931 and originally serialized in the February, March and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories. It has been reproduced in numerous collections since Lovecraft's death. Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi describes the novella as representing the decisive'demythology'of the Cthulhu Mythos by reinterpreting Lovecraft's earlier supernatural stories in a science fiction paradigm.

The presence of the supernatural in literature has been used to make social commentary, to establish cultural identity, to explore class or gender roles, and much more. From ghosts to vampires, stories about the supernatural have been passed down through English literature and continue to fascinate modern readers. Supernatural Literature will provide thorough coverage of the literature of the supernatural across the canon, covering such works as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.Supernatural Literature provides students with an essential guide to critical works, including both classic works and more popular, contemporary works that appeal to students. Scholarly treatment of contemporary works can be particularly difficult to uncover, and the combination of the classic and contemporary, with opportunities to compare works across the spectrum, makes this title a vital resource for both students and scholars.

Daniel Defoe's work displays a keen interest in stories of supernatural encounters. Once considering how one might prove supernatural occurrences and whether one can trust eyewitness accounts, Defoe demonstrates that more is at stake. Like his contemporaries, Defoe wonders about the range of scientific insight, and about the moral and epistemological ramifications of unchallenged trust and faith. His transformations of the supernatural probe the boundaries of knowledge and evidence and play with the limits of cognition, emphasizing the inseparability of mind and emotion.

With incisive power, Lovecraft here formulates the aesthetics of supernatural horror & summarises the range of its literary expression from primitive folklore to the tales of his own 20th-century masters. (Goodreads)

Long acknowledged as a master of nightmarish vision, H.P. Lovecraft established the genuineness and dignity of his own pioneering fiction in 1931 with his quintessential work of supernatural horror, At the Mountains of Madness. The deliberately told and increasingly chilling recollection of an Antarctic expedition's uncanny discoveries --and their encounter with an untold menace in the ruins of a lost civilisation--is a milestone of macabre literature. (Goodreads)