Other worlds than this: Stephen King's Dark Tower Gothic Multiverse
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The Department of English seeks to provide all university students with the skills of effective communication and critical thinking, as well as imparting knowledge of literature, creative writing, linguistics, speech and technical communication to students within and outside of the department.
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The Department of English and Speech was formed in 1939 from the merger of the Department of English and the Department of Public Speaking. In 1971 its name changed to the Department of English.
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1939-present
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- Department of English and Speech (1939-1971)
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- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (parent college)
- Department of English (predecessor, 1898-1939)
- Department of Public Speaking (predecessor, 1898-1939)
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Abstract
The rise of multiverse cosmological models in the twentieth century birthed many texts, fictional or scientific, that navigated the potential of multiple universes. Stephen King's Dark Tower novels infuse gothic conventions with new possibilities and facets of meaning while simultaneously illuminating harsh narrative difficulties inherent to a multiverse.
A study of King's innovations required the use of literary criticism of King and the gothic, scientific journals and works on the multiverse, and psychological or philosophical studies of the human mind and its relationship to the cosmos. King evokes the uncanny through both a living, wounded multiverse and infinite doubling across infinite worlds. The growing cosmic landscape, unable to be confined by stable borders or cartography signifies gothic fiction's attempt to map unstable moral boundaries. The dark tower, an ambiguously symbolic focalization point, places the gothic castle in every universe. Each iteration of the tower bears symbolic weight, from the conflict between empiricism and faith the mistreatment of women. Lastly, King uses a multiverse to weave himself into the fabric and legacy of American fiction, citing Chambers, Lovecraft, and Poe.
The gothic dependence on a setting, e.g. haunted castles or landscapes, takes on new purpose in a multiverse. King's choice of a vast, infinite milieu for his magnum opus afforded him numerous opportunities to alter gothic convention. While the depths of a multiverse's narrative potential may never be fully plumbed, King's exploration of it indicates where future authors may travel.