Transcendent Writers in Stephen King''s Fiction: A Post-Jungian Analysis of the Puer Aeternus

Transcendent Writers in Stephen Kings Fiction combines a post-Jungian critical perspective of the puer aeternus. Offering new insight into Kings work, it provides reconceptualisation of the eternal youth to develop a new theory: the concept of the transcendent writer.

Combining recent Jungian and Post-Jungian developmental theories, this analysis of a selection of classic King novels addresses the importance of the stories within Kings main narrative, those of Kings writer-protagonists; an aspect often overlooked. Using these stories-within-stories, it demonstrates the way in which Kings novels illustrate their young protagonists trajectories into adulthood and delineates Kings portrayal of the psychological development of adolescence and their ambivalent experience of the world. This book demonstrates how the act of writing plays a crucial role for Kings writer-protagonists in their search for a stable identify, guiding us through their journey from disaffected youths to well-rounded adults.

Transcendent Writers in Stephen King's Fiction will be of interest to Jungian and post-Jungian scholars, philosophers and teachers focusing on the theme of psychological development and identity, and to those studying literature with a particular interest in horror.