Stephen King books

[badlands]

Why aren't they considered academic standards or academic reading by college professors?

[Agaricus]

Simple prejudice against "popular"/"genre"/"trashy" fiction? Such was the case back in my school days.

[august]

Yep, but whole academic dissertations have been written on King's work, and there are plenty of courses offered at colleges that focus on or include his work. Including ones taught at colleges by him! :laugh:
I know for a fact that students were using his works as topics for successful college entrance applications and national academic awards as early as the mid-70's, when only his first three novels were in print.

[august]

And indeed, here's one that happened to turn up first in a simple Google search - it's a grad level class at UNC Wilmington:

https://uncw.edu/gls/stephenkinggls592.html

[Agaricus]

...And now many former sf & fantasy authors are now respected academics. Chip Delany, for one, comes to mind.

[Boomstick]

Simple prejudice against "popular"/"genre"/"trashy" fiction? Such was the case back in my school days.

During my time (early 2000s), at least a few professors in the English department made no secret of being huge Harry Potter fans. So the bar has been lowered considerably for a
while now. Move over, William Faulkner! :bg:

[Michael]

I should think there are modern literature courses that probably include at least one of Stephen King's stories. Not many, I am sure. But there are so many "classics" that it takes a long time for a book to break into academic reading lists. The lit classes I took in college focused on the evolution of genres and writing styles, so they tended to focus on the "pioneers".

[august]

Ah but see above, quoted below:

Yep, but whole academic dissertations have been written on King's work, and there are plenty of courses offered at colleges that focus on or include his work. Including ones taught at colleges by him! :laugh:
I know for a fact that students were using his works as topics for successful college entrance applications and national academic awards as early as the mid-70's, when only his first three novels were in print.
......
And indeed, here's one that happened to turn up first in a simple Google search - it's a grad level class at UNC Wilmington:

https://uncw.edu/gls/stephenkinggls592.html

Some others that turn up first in another google search include Vermont Tech, this class on the filmed version of his books at the University of Vermont, this teacher's college lit class, and the high school
classes of this English teacher. There's even an endowed chair in Stephen King studies at the University of Maine, so there are many many many courses on his work. That doesn't necessarily get reported on fan websites, but they're there in catalogues of courses.

[Michael]

Well, that is what I get for scanning the discussion. Sorry.

[ardaun2020]

Even Stephen King says his horror novels are like the McDonalds of fiction. However, his non-horror (light supernatural) novels are seriously good by any standard. Those ones I think can be used in academia.

[namesarehard]

If they're not they will be. Not only are they great stories but his classic books great americana, I think on the order of Mark Twain.