Folklore and the Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction

The 'literary fantastic' is a topic which has soared in both the contemporary imagination and in critical review. Dealing with the canonical and non-canonical works of luminaries that includes Barrie, Dickens, Eliot, MacDonald, and Stevenson; Jason Marc Harris's ambitious book examines the tensions between folk metaphysics and Enlightenment values that produce the literary fantastic. Demonstrating that a negotiation with folklore was central to the canon of British literature, the author charts the complicated rhetoric associated with folkloric fiction, suggesting the authors in question used folklore to articulate profound cultural ambivalence towards issues of class, domesticity, education, gender, imperialism, nationalism, race, politics, religion and metaphysics. Both provocative and insightful, Harris's analysis of the function of folk metaphysics in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century narratives with prove stimulating reading for those interested in nineteenth century British fiction.

Jason Marc Harris teaches at Michigan State University.