Stephen King and the Uncanny Imaginary

Offering an insightful examination of Stephen Kings fiction, this book utilises a psychoanalytical approach drawing on Freuds theory of the uncanny. It demonstrates how entrenched Kings work is in a literary tradition influenced by psychoanalytic theory, as well as the ways that King evades and amends Freud. Such an approach positions Kings texts not simply as objects of interpretation that might yield latent meaning, but as producers of meaning. King can certainly be read through the lens of the uncanny, but this book also aims to consider the uncanny through the lens of King.

Organised around specific elements of the uncanny that can be found in Kings fiction, this book explores the themes of death and the return of the dead, monstrosity, telepathy, inanimate objects becoming menacingly animate, and spooky children. Popular texts are considered, such as IT, The Shining, and Pet Sematary, as well as less discussed work, including The Institute, The Regulators and Desperation. The books central argument is that Kings uncanny motifs offer insightful commentary on what is repressed in contemporary culture and insist on the failure of scientific rationalism to explain the world. Kings uncanny imaginary rejects dualistic notions of an experiencing self in an inert physical world and insists that psychic experience is bound up with the environmental.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary and popular literature, gothic and horror studies, and cultural studies.