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Full Description
Although the odyssey has long been recognized as a crucial characteristic of the epic, scant attention has been paid to it as a telling device within other forms of the fantastic. Fantastic Odysseys supports the long-held awareness of the odyssey metaphor as an integral function within literary discourse, one that demonstrates a continuum of essential change in human cultural experience. By shifting the focus of that awareness from the epic narrative to a range of other fantastic narratives, this collection challenges critical and literary boundaries while it expands the meaning and value of the odyssey metaphor through the examination of a variety of works.
Divided into four sections, the essays cover the odyssey as a journey toward knowledge, identity, transformation, and destiny. Beginning and ending with a critical nod toward 2001: A Space Odyssey, these sections map the narrative trails left by odysseys imagined across time and space, mode and genre: from early French theatre to postmodern film, from Jewish short-story fantasies to Latin American narrative, from quest novels to futuristic crime thrillers, from German Romanticism to Spanish satire. Among the authors studied are Borges, Milás, Kafka, Malamud, Hoffmann, Ende, Straub, King, McKillip, Tiptree, Robinson, and Clark; among the films are Them!, The Rapture, American Psycho, and Fight Club. This unique collection increases our understanding of the odyssey as it is represented in various forms and genres.
Contents
Acknowledgments Introduction by Mary Pharr The Odyssey as a Journey Toward Knowledge Bodies in Cyberspace: ICFA Guest Scholar Talk by Brooks London Science of the Times: The Charlatan's Odyssey in Early Modern France by Sharon D. King Time and the Fantastic: Simultaneity in Borges, Cortazar, Lezama Lima, and Paz by Sharon L. Sieber Criminal Predisposition: Futuristic Crime Thrillers and Biogovernance by Neil Gerlach Warning: In Case of Rapture, Just Say "No" by Gene Doty The Odyssey as a Journey Toward Identity The Mindless Body and the Bodiless Mind: Gyrations of Body, Mind, and Soul in Short-Story Fantasies by Jewish Writers by Marilyn Jurich The Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Power: The Wizards of Patricia A McKillip by Christine Mains Resisting the Mystique: Women in 1950s Science-Fiction Films by Susan A. George Just a Nobody: Horror Through Anonymity in American Psycho by Alison M. Kelly Fight Club: Bringing Frankenstein into the New Millenium by Leonard G. Heldreth The Odyssey as a Journey Toward Transformation Magic, Myth, and Ritual in E.T.A. Hoffmann's Der Goldne Topf by April C. Athmann Requiem, Progress, and Apocalypse in James Tiptree Jr.'s "Slow Music" by William A. Clemente Slime and the Sublime: Transcendence and De-evolution in Peter Straub's and Arthur Machen's Fiction by Bernadette Lynn Bosky When Books Are for the Birds: Late Capitalism and Barbarity in Juan Jose Millas's The Alphabetical Order by Dale Knickerbocker The Odyssey as a Journey Toward Destiny Ludwig Tieck and Michael Ende: The Old Man of the (Moving) Mountain by David B. Dickens Martian Odysseys: Travel and Narrative Unrest in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars by Amy M. Clarke A Requiem for Ray Brower: Encountering Death in Stephen King's "The Body" by Keith Philip Silva 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Betrayal of Language by Fred D. White Selected Bibliography Index About the Contributors
