1st Edition

Popular Fiction The Logics and Practices of a Literary Field

By Ken Gelder Copyright 2004
    192 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    192 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In this important book, Ken Gelder offers a lively, progressive and comprehensive account of popular fiction as a distinctive literary field. Drawing on a wide range of popular novelists, from Sir Walter Scott and Marie Corelli to Ian Fleming, J. K. Rowling and Stephen King, his book describes for the first time how this field works and what its unique features are. In addition, Gelder provides a critical history of three primary genres - romance, crime fiction and science fiction - and looks at the role of bookshops, fanzines and prozines in the distribution and evaluation of popular fiction. Finally, he examines five bestselling popular novelists in detail - John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, Jackie Collins and J. R. R. Tolkien - to see how popular fiction is used, discussed and identified in contemporary culture.

    Introduction  Part 1: Defining the Field  1. Popular Fiction: The Opposite of Literature?  2. Genre: History, Attitudes, Practice  3. Processing Popular Fiction: Bookshops, Fans, Fanzines and Prozines, Organizations  Part 2: Five Popular Novelists  4. (Lo-tech) John Grisham and (Hi-tech) Michael Crichton: Putting the Thriller to Work  5. The Vampire Writes Back: Anne Rice and the (Re)Turn of the Author  6. Jackie Collins, Anti-Romance and the Celebrity Novel  7. J.R.R. Tolkien and Global Terrorism  Conclusion  Bibliography  Index

    Biography

    Ken Gelder is a Reader in English at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His books include Reading the Vampire (Routledge 1994) and, with Jane M. Jacobs, Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation (Melbourne University Press, 1998). He is co-editor of The Subcultures Reader (1997) and editor of The Horror Reader (2000), both published by Routledge.