{"product_id":"landscape-of-fear-stephen-kings-american-gothic-9780879724054","title":"Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic","description":"\u003cp\u003e One of the very first books to take Stephen King seriously, \u003ci\u003eLandscape of Fear\u003c\/i\u003e (originally published in 1988) reveals the source of King's horror in the sociopolitical anxieties of the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era. In this groundbreaking study, Tony Magistrale shows how King's fiction transcends the escapism typical of its genre to tap into our deepest cultural fears: \"that the government we have installed through the democratic process is not only corrupt but actively pursuing our destruction, that our technologies have progressed to the point at which the individual has now become expendable, and that our fundamental social institutions-school, marriage, workplace, and the church-have, beneath their veneers of respectability, evolved into perverse manifestations of narcissism, greed, and violence.\"\u003cbr\u003e Tracing King's moralist vision to the likes of Twain, Hawthorne, and Melville, \u003ci\u003eLandscape of Fear\u003c\/i\u003e establishes the place of this popular writer within the grand tradition of American literature. Like his literary forbears, King gives us characters that have the capacity to make ethical choices in an imperfect, often evil world. Yet he inscribes that conflict within unmistakably modern settings. From the industrial nightmare of \"Graveyard Shift\" to the breakdown of the domestic sphere in \u003ci\u003eThe Shining\u003c\/i\u003e, from the techno-horrors of \u003ci\u003eThe Stand\u003c\/i\u003e to the religious fanaticism and adolescent cruelty depicted in \u003ci\u003eCarrie\u003c\/i\u003e, Magistrale charts the contours of King's fictional landscape in its first decade.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTony Magistrale is professor of English at the University of Vermont. His many books include \u003ci\u003eHollywood's Stephen King\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePoe's Children\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eA Dark Night's Dreaming\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Wisconsin Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52033946910994,"sku":"9780879724054","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5639785d-f900-4882-9b6c-be233ecc9aba.jpg?v=1770980779","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/landscape-of-fear-stephen-kings-american-gothic-9780879724054","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}