Prof's Choice
Oedipal struggles, gothic horror, & Little Red Riding Hood.
TZVETAN TODOROV, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to aLiterary Genre (Cornell University Press, 1975) A detailed and perceptive discourse on "the fantastic," and a philosophical-historical discussion of the relation of "the fantastic" to literature itself.
ERIC S. RABKIN, TheFantastic in Literature (Princeton University Press, 1976) A thorough discussion of the history and criticism of fantastic literature.
SIGMUND FREUD, "The Uncanny "(1919) In analysing the hero of E.T.A. Hoffmann's tale "The Sandman," the father of psychoanalysis finds his theory of the Oedipal struggle confirmed.
E.T.A. HOFFMANN, Tales ofHoffmann (Penguin Books, 1982). The tales of this influential and prolific German author of the Romantic period reflect his penchant for the grotesque and bizarre. In them he created an extraordinary world of fantasy, poetry and the supernatural.
NICOLAI V. GOGOL, The Overcoatand Other Tales of Good and Evil (Norton, 1965) Against the background of supernatural forces, the struggle between good and evil unfolds in these tales with such intensity that everything is made acceptable and credible.
EDGAR ALLAN POE, Selected Writings (Penguin, 1985) The arch-priest of Gothic horror and most exotic of American writers at his best. Poe's investigations of extreme states of consciousness have a particular relevance for our time.
FRANZ KAFKA, The Metamorphosis,the Penal Colony, and Other Stories (Schocken, 1975) The stories of the writer who enriched the language by giving us the term "Kafkaesque" are particularly important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man.
ANGELA CARTER, The BloodyChamber (Penguin, 1979) In haunting tales the old fairy stories live on in new guises with updated messages. Little Red Riding Hood seduces and tames the wolf!
