Publication:
Fearful narrator: A look at problems of reliability in the storytelling within Moby Dick and At The Mountains of Madness upon the emergence of the supernatural

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Authors
Muniz-Villalon, Gerardo M.
Embargoed Until
Advisor
Batra, Nandita
College
College of Arts and Sciences - Arts
Department
Department of English
Degree Level
M.A.E.E.
Publisher
Date
2012
Abstract
This thesis explores the elements of fear and the supernatural as seen through the lens of narrative and psychoanalytical theory focusing on the novels Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Howard Philips Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness. Special attention has been paid to the manner in which the main narrators of the books tell of the events that transpired by utilizing narrative theory to analyze the narrators’ consistency in the flow of the narration. Psychoanalytical theory has been used to analyze the way in which the psyches of the narrators in these texts slowly deteriorate as they tell of the events that occurred in the narration of that particular point in their lives. A brief discussion on the history of the emergence of the supernatural horror novel is given to show how the elements of fear have transcended through time to the point that we are right now and fully to understand how these elements of the genre affect the narrative’s ability to sustain believability.

Esta tésis explora los elementos del miedo y lo sobrenatural como son vistos por la percepción del uso de la teoría narrativa y sicoanalista enfocándose en como son representados en relacion a las novelas Moby Dick y At the Mountains of Madness. Atención especial se ha dado a la forma en la que los narradores principales de los libros presentan los eventos que transcurieron utilizando la teoria narativa para analizar sus consistencias en el flujo de la narracion. La Teoría sicoanalista fue utilizada para analizar la manera por la cual el siquis de los narradores en este estudio se deterioran lentamente mientras cuentan de los eventos que ocurieron en la narración en ese punto en particular de sus vidas. Una breve discusión de la historia de los comienzos de la novela the horror sobrenatural es presentada para demostrar como los elementos del miedo han transcendido mediante el tiempo hasta el punto en el cual estamos ahora mismo y para comprender completamente como estos elementos del genero afectan la habilidad narrativa para mantener la credibilidad.
Keywords
Horror fiction,
Supernatural and occult fiction,
Psychoanalysis in literature
Cite
Muniz-Villalon, G. M. (2012). Fearful narrator: A look at problems of reliability in the storytelling within Moby Dick and At The Mountains of Madness upon the emergence of the supernatural [Thesis]. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11801/651