Literature and Fascination [Hardcover]

Exploring literary fascination as a key concept of aesthetic attraction, this book illuminates the ways in which literary texts are designed, presented, and received. Detailed case studies include texts by William Shakespeare, S.T. Coleridge, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Don DeLillo, and Ian McEwan.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Literature and Fascination
2. The Power of Magic and the Fear of Contamination: Fascination in Early (Modern) Literature
3. Facing the Femme Fatale: The Poetics of Seduction and the Fascination with Storytelling
4. The Spark of Inspiration: Mesmerism, Electrifying Fiction, and Gothic Fascination
5. The Anxiety of Influence: Fascination with the Self and the Other
6. The Gorgon Gazes Back: Contemporary Fascination
7. The Journey Ahead: Medusamorphic Perspectives
Bibliography
Index

Sibylle Baumbach (PhD, LMU Munich; MA, UC Santa Barbara) is Full Professor of English Literature and Culture at the University of Innsbruck. Previously she taught at the universities of Mainz, Warwick, Giessen, and Stanford. She is the author of Shakespeare and the Art of Physiognomy (2008) and editor of Regions of Culture  Regions of Identity (2010).