Shirley Jackson and Domesticity
Author | : Jill E. Anderson |
Publisher | : Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
Total Pages | : 353 |
Release | : 2020-05-28 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781501356650 |
ISBN-13 | : 1501356658 |
Rating | : 4/5 (50 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: Shirley Jackson and Domesticity takes on American horror writer Shirley Jackson's domestic narratives – those fictionalized in her novels and short stories as well as the ones captured in her memoirs – to explore the extraordinary and often supernatural ways domestic practices and the ecology of the home influence Jackson's storytelling. Examining various areas of homemaking – child-rearing and reproduction, housekeeping, architecture and spatiality, the housewife mythos – through the theoretical frameworks of gothic, queer, gender, supernatural, humor, and architectural studies, this collection contextualizes Jackson's archive in a Cold War framework and assesses the impact of the work of a writer seeking to question the status quo of her time and culture.