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1	"Escape from the prison-house of the known": reading weird fiction in its historical contexts Reilly, Géza Arthur George 29 October 2014 (has links) Weird fiction criticism has been largely focused on either analyzing texts via the biographies of weird fiction authors, or concentrating on the words on the page to a degree that ignores all outside context. Although these approaches are valuable, more utility is to be found in analyzing weird fictions via their specific historical locations. This dissertation demonstrates the validity of this approach by surveying the works of five American weird fiction authors from the Twentieth Century (Lovecraft, Smith, Howard, Bloch, and Ligotti), and giving new interpretations that are based on an understanding of their placement within specific historical milieus (respectively, anti-WWI sentiment, surrealism and the problem of representation, Southern and Southwestern regionalism, pastiche and publishing culture, and metafiction and genre fiction). This survey supports the need for a new critical approach to weird fiction as described in this dissertation, and furthers our understanding of weird fiction by investigating hitherto unexplored perspectives on weird texts. genre weird American horror Lovecraft Smith Howard Bloch Ligotti historical modern fantastic pastiche WWI metafiction surrealism regionalism fiction
2	Narrative and the Reconfiguration of the Humanist Subject in Robbe-Grillet, Ballard, and Ligotti Acosta-Lewis, Zachary L 01 January 2016 (has links) This thesis examines the utility of the novels, short stories, critical writing, and generically indistinct work of Alain Robbe-Grillet, J.G. Ballard, and Thomas Ligotti in developing a critique of the contemporary manifestations of liberal humanist social, economic, and political subjectivities. To this end, the concurrence of formal fragmentation and sublime aesthetics in early Gothic fiction models the manner in which narrative structures can appropriate structural tropes of dominant institutions, critically reflecting ideological fracture. Read according to the assemblative approach outlined by Deleuze and Guattari, these authors serve as a productive and incisive response to the hegemony of capitalist territorialization with ontologically provocative critique. Alain Robbe-Grillet J.G. Ballard Thomas Ligotti Gothic Subjectivity Antihumanism Continental Philosophy Literature in English, British Isles Literature in English, North America Other English Language and Literature

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"Escape from the prison-house of the known": reading weird fiction in its historical contexts

Narrative and the Reconfiguration of the Humanist Subject in Robbe-Grillet, Ballard, and Ligotti