King noir : the crime fiction of Stephen King / Tony Magistrale, Michael J. Blouin, Stephen King, Charles Ardai.
| Author/creator | Magistrale, Tony author. |
| Other author | Blouin, Michael J., author. |
| Other author | King, Stephen, 1947- contributor. |
| Other author | Ardai, Charles, interviewee. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2025. |
| Description | 245 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Stephen King and the art of detection -- Chapter 1. "My love of crime fiction and its influence on my writing" / Stephen King -- Chapter 2. Passion for the pulps: a dialogue with Charles Ardai -- Chapter 3. Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, and the American detective -- Chapter 4. The multiple deaths of Richard Bachman -- Chapter 5. The open-and-shut cases of "Mr. Mercedes" and "Holly" -- Chapter 6. Femme noir: "Misery" and "Dolores Claiborne" -- Chapter 7. The incestuous "Later" -- Chapter 8. Stephen King at the brink: the complicated influence of Raymond Chandler -- Chapter 9. "Billy Summers" and the criminal's redemption -- Conclusions: A need for the unknown -- Notes -- Works cited -- Index. |
| Abstract | "Over the past thirty years, Stephen King has received enormous attention from both the popular press as well as academics seeking to explain the unique phenomenon of his success. Books on King explore his canon in religious contexts, in political and historical contexts, in mythic-specifically Jungian-contexts, in Gothic/horror (especially American literary) contexts, and in a wide variety of other contexts appropriate to a writer who, over the past half century, has become "America's Storyteller." Beginning with a never-published chapter authored by Stephen King himself on the influence of the genre on his own writing, King Noir makes an invaluable contribution to King scholarship by placing King's works in conversation with American crime fiction. This is the third book that Tony Magistrale and Michael J. Blouin have coauthored on the work of Stephen King, and the first to consider King's canon through the lens of crime fiction. King Noir examines not only King's own efforts at writing in the detective genre, but also how the detective genre finds its way into work typically regarded as horror fiction. In interviews, King has acknowledged his debt to earlier writers in the genre, such as Ed McBain and Raymond Chandler, and he much more often references hardboiled writers than he does horror writers. One could speculate that King became a writer because of his love of pulpy crime fiction, which he continues to hold in high esteem. From The Dead Zone to Mr. Mercedes, from the crime fiction of his pseudonym Richard Bachman to his most recent novel Holly, King returns obsessively to patterns established by American sleuths of every stripe, paying homage to them at the same time as he innovates on the formulas he has inherited. To focus upon a hardboiled Stephen King is to discover exciting new avenues for inquiry into one of America's most enduring, and adaptable, storytellers"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-241) and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Magistrale, Tony. King noir Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2025 9781496856425 |
| LCCN | 2024055929 |
| ISBN | 9781496852755 |
| ISBN | 9781496852748 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 1496852745 |
| ISBN | 1496852753 |
| ISBN | (epub) |
| ISBN | (epub) |
| ISBN | (pdf) |
| ISBN | (pdf) |
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