The Weaponized Mundane

Nostalgia and Catharsis in the Work of Stephen King

Moore, Marshall ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0638-0828 (2024) The Weaponized Mundane. In: Everyday Evil in Stephen King's America: Essays, Images, Paratexts. Routledge, Oxford & New York, pp. 147-156. ISBN 9781032518596

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Abstract / Summary

Stephen King’s career spans decades and includes works of fiction in the horror, crime, and fantasy genres. Although King is typically recognized and marketed as a horror author, horror is an outlier in publishing because it is based more on intended reader affect than on the content of the story itself. As a result, certain elements and rhetorical moves in a work of horror fiction take on functional purposes distinct from their counterparts in other genres. Indeed, notions of “horror” and “genre” remain poorly defined, and these ambiguities serve as the basis for my argument about King’s explorations of evil. By viewing it through the lenses of scholarship into creativity, nostalgia, and creative writing practice, we begin to see a pattern of evil manifesting as renewed and updated creative utility across King’s body of work.

Item Type:	Book Section
ISBN:	9781032518596
Subjects:	Literature
Department:	School of Writing & Journalism
Depositing User:	Marshall Moore
Date Deposited:	05 Oct 2026 13:37
Last Modified:	05 Oct 2026 13:37
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/6622

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