Arachnopoetics: Spiders and Webs in the American Literary Imagination
Spider and web imagery abounds in American literature from the colonial era through the present, appearing in the work of writers ranging from beloved children's authors (e.g., L. Frank Baum, E. B. White, Shel Silverstein) to revered poets (e.g., Edward Taylor, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost) and canonical novelists (e.g., Mark Twain, Vladimir Nabokov, Toni Morrison) to genre superstars (e.g., Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman). There is a great deal of variety in the nature of that imagery among different texts, where the spider is cast in opposite roles - predator and prey, creator and destroyer, hero and villain - and possesses incompatible characteristics: intelligence and foolishness, wildness and domesticity, kindness and cruelty. Arachnopoetics investigates spiders and webs in dozens of primary sources to determine the range of functions spiders perform in American literature as well as the correspondingly varied tones the texts adopt toward them. The method of close reading employed incorporates techniques from traditional poetics and contemporary stylistics. This study argues that the spider is a flexible figure in the American literary imagination, capable of embodying the wonders and horrors of both the unknowable other and the intimate self. Unlike other commonly feared creatures, the spider offers a combination of the sublime and beautiful: its alien physical form provokes terror and disgust even as its ability to spin delicate webs inspires admiration and awe. In an examination of spiders across genres, variations of particular types emerge. For instance, the spider appears as a monster in cautionary tales for young readers, frequently inflated to a gigantic size, and these giant spiders also populate the adult genres of horror and science fiction, while in literary fiction and poetry, predatory spiders (literal and metaphorical) are often used to help establish character and theme. Through an analysis of diverse passages and poems, this study demonstrates the peculiar status of the spider within American literature as a creature of powerful contradictions. The chapters are as follows: Introduction; 1: Children's Literature; 2: Poetry; 3: Literary Fiction; 4: Popular Fiction; and Conclusion.
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