Nightmare : from literary experiments to cultural projects / / by Dina Khapaeva ; translated by Rosie Tweddle.

• Superior document: Russian history and culture ; v. 10
• Author: Khapaeva, Dina.
• TeilnehmendeR: Tweddle, Rosie.
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Russian history and culture (Leiden, Netherlands) ; v. 10.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (273 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

What is a nightmare as a psychological experience, a literary experiment and a cultural project? Why has experiencing a nightmare under the guise of reading a novel, watching a film or playing a video game become a persistent requirement of contemporary mass culture? By answering these questions, which have not been addressed by literary criticism and cultural studies, we can interpret anew the texts of classic authors. Charles Maturin, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, Howard Philips Lovecraft and Victor Pelevin carry out bold experiments on their heroes and readers as they seek to investigate the nature of nightmare in their works. This book examines their prose to reveal the unstudied features of the nightmare as a mental state and traces the mosaic of coincidences leading from literary experiments to today’s culture of nightmare consumption.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Part One The Nightmare of Literature -- Chapter One Sources -- Chapter Two The Nightmare Alphabet -- Chapter Three The Muteness of Nightmares -- Chapter Four Interpretation of the Nightmare: Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers -- Chapter Five The Nightmare of Culture -- References -- Index.