Reading the Text That Isn't There: Paranoia in the Nineteenth-Century Novel

by Mike Davis

Overview

Through a careful examination of the work of the canonical nineteenth-century novelists, Mike Davis traces conspiracies and conspiratorial fantasy from one narrative site to another.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138011670
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/17/2014
Series:	Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mike Davis earned his Ph.D. in 2002 from Princeton University, where he conducted his own research concerning the American novel in addition to assisting Professor Arnold Rampersad in the preparation of the Harlem Renaissance section of the Norton Anthology of African American Literature. He is currently a Dean's Appointment at Temple University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: The Gothic Logic of Paranoia 1

Chapter 1 Wieland's Transformations: The Problem of Closure in the "Opening" American Novel 19

Chapter 2 "Hidden Significance": The Marble Faun as Post Script to Seven Gables 45

Chapter 3 Rhetorical Razors: "Lurking Significance" in the "Vexatious Coincidence" of Benito Cereno 71

Chapter 4 Literary Cloaks, Practical Jokes, and the Esophagus Hoax: Concealment, Conspiracy, and the Contrivance of History in Twain 99

Notes 141

Bibliography 177

Index 183