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Examines the metaphor of the odyssey in literary and dramatic forms outside of the epic genre.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction by Mary Pharr The Odyssey as a Journey Toward Knowledge Bodies in Cyberspace: ICFA Guest Scholar Talk by Brooks London Science of the Times: The Charlatan's Odyssey in Early Modern France by Sharon D. King Time and the Fantastic: Simultaneity in Borges, Cortazar, Lezama Lima, and Paz by Sharon L. Sieber Criminal Predisposition: Futuristic Crime Thrillers and Biogovernance by Neil Gerlach Warning: In Case of Rapture, Just Say "No" by Gene Doty The Odyssey as a Journey Toward Identity The Mindless Body and the Bodiless Mind: Gyrations of Body, Mind, and Soul in Short-Story Fantasies by Jewish Writers by Marilyn Jurich The Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Power: The Wizards of Patricia A McKillip by Christine Mains Resisting the Mystique: Women in 1950s Science-Fiction Films by Susan A. George Just a Nobody: Horror Through Anonymity in American Psycho by Alison M. Kelly Fight Club: Bringing Frankenstein into the New Millenium by Leonard G. Heldreth The Odyssey as a Journey Toward Transformation Magic, Myth, and Ritual in E.T.A. Hoffmann's Der Goldne Topf by April C. Athmann Requiem, Progress, and Apocalypse in James Tiptree Jr.'s "Slow Music" by William A. Clemente Slime and the Sublime: Transcendence and De-evolution in Peter Straub's and Arthur Machen's Fiction by Bernadette Lynn Bosky When Books Are for the Birds: Late Capitalism and Barbarity in Juan Jose Millas's The Alphabetical Order by Dale Knickerbocker The Odyssey as a Journey Toward Destiny Ludwig Tieck and Michael Ende: The Old Man of the (Moving) Mountain by David B. Dickens Martian Odysseys: Travel and Narrative Unrest in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars by Amy M. Clarke A Requiem for Ray Brower: Encountering Death in Stephen King's "The Body" by Keith Philip Silva 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Betrayal of Language by Fred D. White Selected Bibliography Index About the Contributors

About the Author

MARY PHARR is Professor of English at Florida Southern College. There she teaches classes ranging from Romanticism to film. She has served as a member of the Speakers Bureau for the Florida Humanities Council and as an officer in the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. The author of both journal articles and book chapters in the field of fantastic fiction and film, she has also co-edited the anthology The Blood Is the Life: Vampires in Literature (1999).

Reviews

"Fantastic Odysseys, like the odyssey itself, is a tour de force in both senses: an impressive feat and a journey that must be taken."-Howard V. Hendrix, Ph.D. Science Fiction author and educator, California State University, Fresno