I read the poems of What She Said About Love with a growing sense of their achievement, their expression of a particular and valuable voice. Here is a poet who understands that "The act of casting shape from chaos / breeds enemies." That refers to Michaelangelo, but it stands in for the poet generally, and especially one of who has Tony Magistrale's gifts. Poetry is the enemy of bland, boring, mass-produced speech. It is language intensified to a level of combat with the world. And Magistrale has managed to keep up the fight in poem after poem. This is a bracing, sweet, dark, and always moving volume of poems. I believe it will affect those who read it deeply. It deserves a wide audience. - Jay Parini, Middlebury College "The Plan," which describes a Texas-style barbecue in a Venetian twilight, concludes: "In this most secreted city, I divulge no secrets / Content to wear my hat at rakish angle / Tend the grill, savor its sizzle," a characterization that neatly fits the many fine poems of Anthony Magistrale whose sizzle is sure to whet the appetites of readers. The tones may vary, from the moodiness of "Venetian Poems" to the playfulness of "Beware, the Bible Warns, of Fallen Women," but constant throughout are the intellectual alertness, the satisfying structures, and the vivid descriptions: the adjectives are often surprising, as in "dense, pasty Milanese rain," but almost always just right. "I Nemici" be gins: "The act of casting shape from chaos / breeds enemies." Magistrale's point is well taken here, but in this case it's much more likely to breed friends and admirers. - Michael Palma, Bordighera Poetry Prize Judge, 2007-2008

The contributions of Edgar Allan Poe have withstood the test of time; his best poems and fiction are more popular and carry greater significance now than they did during his own era. This highly readable introduction to the life, times, and major works of Poe offers fresh interpretations of timeless masterpieces like The Raven and The Purloined Letter. Carefully considering important thematic elements as well as genre, this book organizes the works of Poe into four significant groupings: the poetry, Vampiric love stories, tales of psychological terror, and the detective stories. Close readings are given for a selection of the most important works that represent Poe's canon of writings, including the chilling Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat.

This introductory study to Edgar Allan Poe begins with a concise biographical chapter that explores Poe's troubled experiences. The Literary Heritage chapter chronicles Poe's influence on other writers, artists, and filmmakers who followed. This work examines the major poems from Poe's canon, with special attention to those works that are most often taught and anthologized. Poe's most famous tales of terror and revenge are juxtaposed because they all revolve around murders and the elements of terror associated with the act of killing. Likewise, his love stories are brought together in a chapter that deals with vampirisim and gender. The final chapter, The Origins of the Detective Tale, examines Poe's tales of ratiocination, and traces the evolution of many popular culture super sleuths to Poe's Dupin. A selective bibliography of biographical and critical works on Poe, including contemporary reviews, completes this thorough volume. Students, general readers, and fans of all things Gothic will enjoy the fascinating insights this volume offers.

?? [[ Best known as the author of imaginative short fiction, such as The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado, and as the author of hauntingly sonorous poems such as The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe was a leading practitioner of the American Gothic and helped popularize the short story as a genre. This reference work assembles in dictionary format a complete and current body of information on Poe's life and work. More than 1900 entries cover all phases of Poe's art and literary criticism, his family relationships, his numerous travels and residences, and the abundance of critical responses to his works. Each entry provides bibliographical information, and the volume concludes with an extensive listing of works for further consideration. ]] ?? Best known for his mysterious and imaginative short fiction, such as The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado, as well as hauntingly sonorous poems such as The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe has secured a lasting place in the American literary canon. He was one of the first American authors to be given serious attention in Europe, and his works popularized the Gothic, the short story, and detective fiction in America. Poe's works are frequently studied in schools and colleges, but he also retains his appeal as one of America's most demanding popular authors. His works reflect his vast and sometimes arcane erudition, his probing insights into the workings of the mind, his theories of literature and aesthetics, and his interest in science and the supernatural. Through more than 1900 alphabetically arranged entries, this reference book provides complete and current coverage of Poe's life and work. Some entries treat Poe's known reading and his responses to literary contemporaries and international literary figures. Others comment on the impact of various writers and literary traditions on Poe's imagination. Still others address Poe's views on subjects ranging from Shakespeare to mesmerism to phrenology. Each entry is supplemented by a bibliographical note which gives the basis for the entry and suggests sources for further investigation. Each entry for Poe's fiction and poetry contains a critical synopsis, and an extensive bibliography at the end of the volume lists the most important critical and biographical studies of Poe.

This analysis of the work of Stephen King explores the distinctly American fears and foibles that King has celebrated, condemned, and generally examined in the course of his wildly successful career. Stephen King: America's Storyteller explores the particular American-ness of Stephen King's work. It is the first major examination to follow this defining theme through King's 40-year career, from his earliest writings to his most recent novels and films made from them. Stephen King begins by tracing Stephen King's rise from his formative years to his status as a one of the most popular writers in publishing history. It then takes a close look at the major works from his canon, including The Shining, The Stand, It, Dolores Claiborne, and The Dark Tower. In these works and others, author Tony Magistrale focuses on King's deep rooted sense of the American experience, exemplified by his clear-eyed presentation of our historical and cultural foibles and scars; his gallery of unlikely friendships that cross race, age, and class boundaries; and his transcendent portrayals of uniquely American survival instincts, fellowship, and acts of heroism from the least likely of sources. Presents separate chapters on major works of Stephen King, including The Shining, The Stand, It, Dolores Claiborne, and The Dark Tower Includes a chronology of Stephen King's life and 40-year career Offers a concluding interview with Stephen King

In Violence in the Films of Stephen King, contributors analyze the theme of violence in the film adaptations of Stephen King's work-ranging from the earliest films in the King canon to his most recent iterations-through a variety of lenses. Investigating the diverse and varying roles that violence continues to play as both the level of violence and the gendered depictions of violence have evolved, many of the contributors come to the conclusion that King's films have grown more violent over time. This book also examines the fine line between necessary violence and sensationalist violence, discussing the complexity of determining what constitutes violence with a narrative and ethical significance versus violence intended solely to titillate, repulse, or otherwise draw an emotional reaction from viewers. Scholars of film studies, horror studies, literary studies, and gender studies will find this book particularly useful.

This book surveys the labyrinthine relationship between Stephen King and American History. By depicting American History as a doomed cycle of greed and violence, King poses a number of important questions: who gets to make history, what gets left out, how one understands one's role within it, and how one might avoid repeating mistakes of the past. This volume examines King's relationship to American History through the illumination of metanarratives, adaptations, "queer" and alternative historical lenses, which confront the destructive patterns of our past as well as our capacity to imagine a different future. Stephen King and American History will present readers with an opportunity to place popular culture in conversation with the pressing issues of our day. If we hope to imagine a different path forward, we will need to come to terms with this enclosure-a task for which King's corpus is uniquely well-suited.

This book surveys the labyrinthine relationship between Stephen King and American History. By depicting American History as a doomed cycle of greed and violence, King poses a number of important questions: who gets to make history, what gets left out, how one understands one's role within it, and how one might avoid repeating mistakes of the past. This volume examines King's relationship to American History through the illumination of metanarratives, adaptations, "queer" and alternative historical lenses, which confront the destructive patterns of our past as well as our capacity to imagine a different future. Stephen King and American History will present readers with an opportunity to place popular culture in conversation with the pressing issues of our day. If we hope to imagine a different path forward, we will need to come to terms with this enclosure-a task for which King's corpus is uniquely well-suited.

This book is about culture shock and the writing process. For a student, the relationship between writing and the challenge of living in a foreign culture may not be obvious. The purpose of Writing Across Culture is to aid the student in documenting and analyzing the connection. If culture can be broadly defined as the unwritten rules of every-day life, one effective method for learning these rules is to write about them as they are discovered. In this way, it is possible to see writing as a tool for cultural inquiry and comprehension, and, hence, an antidote for culture shock. Writing Across Culture encourages its readers to become writers engaged in a dialogue-between the individual and the new society-about everyday cultural differences.

Surely one of America's most popular novelists, Stephen King has only recently begun to receive serious attention from scholars and literary critics. The Dark Descent assembles fifteen illuminating original essays that consider King from a variety of intellectual orientations, addressing the major novels and central thematic concerns that represent King's contributions to American letters and elevating King scholarship to a new level of critical discourse. This volume places King firmly within the canon of contemporary American fiction. The essayists are concerned with explicating the meanings of individual narratives and creating critical contexts for their interpretion. While covering a broad range of his works and using multiple theoretical approaches--including reader-response, mythic, psychoanalytic, and structuralist criticism--to offer insights into King's fiction, most of the essayists reflect on one of two central theses: that King's body of literature may be seen as having been deeply influenced by the mainstream traditions of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and European fictions, and that the narratives may be read as profound commentary on the major political and social tensions shaping contemporary American life. King's supernatural horrors reflect actual horrors, and his compelling style makes art out of horror fiction. A King chronology, bibliography and an expository introduction flank the analytical essays.

This book features an in-depth analysis of the world's most popular movie, The Shawshank Redemption, delving into issues such as: the significance of race in the film, its cinematic debt to earlier genres, the gothic influences at work in the movie, and the representation of Andy's poster art as cross-gendered signifiers. In addition to exploring the film and novella from which it was adapted, this book also traces the history of the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio, which served as the film's central location, and its relationship to the movie's fictional Shawshank Prison. The last chapter examines why this film has remained both a popular and critical success, inspiring diverse fan bases on the Internet and the evolution of the Shawshank Trail, fourteen of the film's actual site locations that have become a major tourist attraction in central Ohio.

ENTANGLEMENTS is Tony Magistrale's third collection of poetry. The book contains poetry written in both Europe and the United States. Many of the poems reflect a certain awareness of Vermont as seasonal place and essence. Additionally, some of the poems bear black and white illustrations created by Michael Strauss, well-known Vermont landscape painter.

I read the poems of What She Said About Love with a growing sense of their achievement, their expression of a particular and valuable voice. Here is a poet who understands that "The act of casting shape from chaos / breeds enemies." That refers to Michaelangelo, but it stands in for the poet generally, and especially one of who has Tony Magistrale's gifts. Poetry is the enemy of bland, boring, mass-produced speech. It is language intensified to a level of combat with the world. And Magistrale has managed to keep up the fight in poem after poem. This is a bracing, sweet, dark, and always moving volume of poems. I believe it will affect those who read it deeply. It deserves a wide audience. - Jay Parini, Middlebury College "The Plan," which describes a Texas-style barbecue in a Venetian twilight, concludes: "In this most secreted city, I divulge no secrets / Content to wear my hat at rakish angle / Tend the grill, savor its sizzle," a characterization that neatly fits the many fine poems of Anthony Magistrale whose sizzle is sure to whet the appetites of readers. The tones may vary, from the moodiness of "Venetian Poems" to the playfulness of "Beware, the Bible Warns, of Fallen Women," but constant throughout are the intellectual alertness, the satisfying structures, and the vivid descriptions: the adjectives are often surprising, as in "dense, pasty Milanese rain," but almost always just right. "I Nemici" be gins: "The act of casting shape from chaos / breeds enemies." Magistrale's point is well taken here, but in this case it's much more likely to breed friends and admirers. - Michael Palma, Bordighera Poetry Prize Judge, 2007-2008

A survey of criticism on King's book and Kubrick's film adaptation "The Shining."

Magistrale discusses the themes that turn King's fiction into morality tales.

One of the very first books to take Stephen King seriously, "Landscape of Fear" (originally published in 1988) reveals the source of King's horror in the sociopolitical anxieties of the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era. In this groundbreaking study, Tony Magistrale shows how King's fiction transcends the escapism typical of its genre to tap into our deepest cultural fears: "that the government we have installed through the democratic process is not only corrupt but actively pursuing our destruction, that our technologies have progressed to the point at which the individual has now become expendable, and that our fundamental social institutions-school, marriage, workplace, and the church-have, beneath their veneers of respectability, evolved into perverse manifestations of narcissism, greed, and violence."