It seems that I have wandered, ill-advisedly perhaps, into a sort-of Stephen–King kick. Making matters even worse, today’s post isn’t even about one of Mr. King’s works of horror fiction. Or even, one of his two master non-fiction works concerning horror as a genre. This post offers a few thoughts concerning the inaugural issue of a new academic online-journal devoted to the study and analysis of the many works of Stephen King across multiple genres.
Mission Statement
Pennywise Dreadful is a peer-reviewed online journal that seeks to exhibit quality scholarship on the work of the American writer, Stephen King. The journal seeks to create a platform for the publication of research which will sustain an emergent critical demonstration of King’s worth as a subject of scholastic interrogation initiated by publications such as Tony Magistrale’s Landscape of Fear (1988) and John Sears’ Stephen King’s Gothic (2011). Pennywise Dreadful welcomes contributions from scholars and academics that offer innovative, original and scholarly rigorous readings of King’s oeuvre, and that examine the tensions and intertextual resonances that cultivate relationships between King’s fiction and contemporary literature and culture. Pennywise Dreadful is a celebration of the cultural longevity of King’s work and provides a forum for presenting new research on King’s fiction and his contemporary context. The journal is a platform for scholarship concerned with how writers such as Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson, and Edgar Allan Poe have influenced King’s fiction. It also welcomes submissions examining King’s own influence over various exponents of contemporary Horror, in addition to filmic and theatrical adaptations of King’s fiction. The journal publishes an annual issue on Halloween.
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Pennywise Dreadful is a peer-reviewed online journal devoted to “…innovative, original and scholarly rigorous readings of King’s oeuvre…,” and examines “the tensions and intertextual resonances that cultivate relationships between King’s fiction and contemporary literature and culture.” And finally, provides “…a forum for presenting new research on King’s fiction and his contemporary context.”[i]
Pennywise Dreadful’s Editorial Board is comprised of scholars and academics from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. Pictured below are (Front) Editor Dr. Alan Gregory, (Back, left to right) Robin Furth, Editor Dr. Dawn Stobbart, and Advisory Board member Dr. Simon Brown.
Over time, scholarly articles concerning King’s writings have appeared in print. However, the significance of a peer-reviewed journal entirely dedicated to the study of Stephen King’s works—treating it as a subject worthy of serious consideration—cannot be underestimated.
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This issue of Pennywise Dreadful is made up of four articles and four book/movie reviews. While I do not intend to formally review each article, I will share a few of my thoughts and comments on each.
“Stephen King and the Illusion of Childhood”—This first article is written by Lauren Christie, a Ph. D. student in the English Department of the University of Dundee. She is researching the influence of the Gothic tradition on children’s literature.
This piece was the highlight of the journal, in my opinion.
Focusing on the stories IT and The Shining, this article explores the interactions between children and adults and how each views the other. And, that what defines horror alters as the individual matures from child to adult.
“‘Go then, there are other worlds than these’: A Text-World-Theory Exploration of Intertextuality in Stephen King’s Dark Tower Series”— Written by Lizzie Stewart-Shaw. She is a graduate student in the English Department of the University of Nottingham.
This piece uses linguistic and cognitive models to explore the Dark Tower universe. Honestly, this was a very challenging read. In my opinion, too much time is spent defining certain concepts that the author wants to discuss. The result is that comparatively little space is devoted to actual discussion of King’s work.
“Claustrophobic Hotel Rooms and Intermedial Horror in 1408”—This article is authored by Michail Markodimitrakis, a graduate student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He is working on his Ph. D. in American Culture Studies.
This article considers “1408” (written in 1999) and its movie adaptation, 1408 (2007). First and foremost “1408” is a short story; back-story and motivation are secondary concerns by necessity. What I particularly appreciated in this article was how it highlighted differences between the feature-length film and the short-story, as well as the opportunities these differences provide to enhance the story-telling experience.
Adapting Stephen King: Text, Context and the Case of Cell (2016)—The concluding piece in the journal was written by Dr. Simon Brown. He is an Associate Professor of Film and Television at Kingston University, London as well as a member of the Editorial board for the Pennywise Dreadful journal.
This piece discusses why the movie adaptation of King’s Cell is considered to be among the worst ever produced and attempts to define what that even means.
The failure of the movie Cell is befuddling because of the so many parallels with 1408. 1408 got it right and was a commercial success. Why was Cell a flop? This is what this article seeks to answer.
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These articles are followed by four reviews—two of books and one movie and one cable series. The books were an analysis of King’s The Shining and an examination of the success of the movie, The Shawshank Redemption. The movies reviewed were The Dark Tower (2017) and a cable television series, The Mist (2017).
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This inaugural issue of Pennywise Dreadful is a welcome addition to the formal and academic study of Stephen King’s works. Debuting the day following a symposium at Kingston University, London, the journal focused on King’s literary works and their film and television adaptations. The articles are examples of impressive scholarship. The references of each article are a gold mine for Stephen King Studies.
I believe the second issue of Pennywise Dreadful is due out around Halloween 2018. I am very much looking forward to it.
References
Print Resources
Digital Resources
Pennywise Dreadful: The Journal of Stephen King Studies. Wordpress.com. 11 November 2017. Web. 08 June 2018.
https://pennywisedreadful.wordpress.com/
Online Resources
[i] The journal’s Mission Statement.
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