Like Something Out of Stephen King
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
SURC 135
Start Date
21-5-2015
End Date
21-5-2015
Keywords
Stephen King, Metafiction, Literature
Abstract
In the world of popular American literature, there is arguably no author more popular than Stephen King. Since the release of his first novel Carrie in 1974, there has rarely been a year without a new King book and invariably these books reach the bestseller lists. But Stephen King has not always been a household name. He has not always been America’s bogeyman. In this paper, I will seek to discover how Stephen King became Stephen King. More than just an author, King has become a brand, and a subgenre unto himself. King can also be read as text. Like the work he has produced, King is wrought with connections: from text-to-text and author-to-text. King is not only self-referential within works bearing his name, but has referenced himself in books published under a pseudonym, and has even become a character. Like Michel Foucault, I will not be “examining how the author became individualized in a culture like ours. . .” but rather exploring “the relationship between text and author and with the manner in which the text points to this ‘figure’ that, at least in appearance, is outside it and antecedes it.”
Recommended Citation
Tranchell, T.J., "Like Something Out of Stephen King" (2015). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 81.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2015/oralpresentations/81
Department/Program
English
Additional Mentoring Department
English
Like Something Out of Stephen King
SURC 135
In the world of popular American literature, there is arguably no author more popular than Stephen King. Since the release of his first novel Carrie in 1974, there has rarely been a year without a new King book and invariably these books reach the bestseller lists. But Stephen King has not always been a household name. He has not always been America’s bogeyman. In this paper, I will seek to discover how Stephen King became Stephen King. More than just an author, King has become a brand, and a subgenre unto himself. King can also be read as text. Like the work he has produced, King is wrought with connections: from text-to-text and author-to-text. King is not only self-referential within works bearing his name, but has referenced himself in books published under a pseudonym, and has even become a character. Like Michel Foucault, I will not be “examining how the author became individualized in a culture like ours. . .” but rather exploring “the relationship between text and author and with the manner in which the text points to this ‘figure’ that, at least in appearance, is outside it and antecedes it.”
Faculty Mentor(s)
Liahna Armstrong