Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy

by Bernice M. Murphy (Editor)

Shirley Jackson was one of America's most prominent female writers of the 1950s. Between 1948 and 1965 she published six novels, one best-selling story collection, two popular volumes of her family chronicles and many stories, which ranged from fairly conventional tales for the women's magazine market to the ambiguous, allusive, delicately sinister and more obviously literary stories that were closest to Jackson's heart and destined to end up in the more highbrow end of the market. Most critical discussions of Jackson tend to focus on "The Lottery" and The Haunting of Hill House. An author of such accomplishment--and one so fully engaged with the pressures and preoccupations of postwar America--merits fuller discussion. To that end, this collection of essays widens the scope of Jackson scholarship with new writing on such works as The Road through the Wall and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and topics ranging from Jackson's domestic fiction to ethics, cosmology, and eschatology. The book also makes newly available some of the most significant Jackson scholarship published in the last two decades.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2005

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

After discussing Shirley Jackson with a professor from a nearby university who teaches her (!), I wanted more Jackson talk, so I requested this through my library’s ILL system. Delving into Jackson’s place in literature; her themes—relationships between daughters and parents, the symbolic role of houses, inherent rage against misogyny and the patriarchy (and this in the 40s and 50s)—is my kind of thing and I enjoyed reading this book.

The essay, “Comic-Satiric-Fantastic-Gothic: Interactive Modes in Shirley Jackson’s Narratives,” by James Egan validated my belief that the different genres Jackson wrote in are of a piece, all connected to her worldview. Another essayist praises the included “New World Miniatures: Shirley Jackson’s The Sundial and Postwar American Society” by Rich Pascal as the most important in Jackson scholarship so far (as of 2005), adding that more historicism like this is needed. Certainly the Pascal essay would go a long way toward helping those readers baffled by The Sundial.

There was one simplistic essay I thought even I could’ve written, but my least favorites were an essay on Stephen King’s (mis)interpretation of Jackson, one of his avowed influences; and a piece rehabilitating the screenwriter of the widely panned (deservedly so) 1999 film-adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House, which read as an informal talk (and diatribe), not an essay.

Before this book became available to me, I’d started The Letters of Shirley Jackson. I’ll be returning to it immediately.

[Moira]

I interrupted reading Dorian Gray which was an interruption of Ulysses to read this. Yes, I like Jackson that much.

[Kaethe · Rating 1 out of 5]

what was I thinking? I hate literary criticism

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine collection of academic articles covering this great writer's oeuvre, from her chilling classic short story "The Lottery" to her domestic comedies to her gothic novels; I found Tricia Lootens piece about the familial and sexual politics in Jackson's great The Haunting of Hill House a particularly fresh take on the novel, beautifully and convincingly argued.

[Emma Beckett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to spend time with other people's thoughts about Shirley, so I could smile and nod and feel giddy with recognition. Yes, that's my Shirley you're talking about, I could scream about her, too!
I read a wonderful magazine article that consisted of other writers discussing (gushingly 😍) how she'd influenced their work, and I wanted more of that. More of that forever, please!

Some of these essays delighted me, and I was surprised to learn a few new anecdotes. Some I flew through, and others, I trudged miserably through.