Donald R. Burleson

Defends the hypothesis that actress Marilyn Monroe was murdered by government officials to silence her about UFO-coverup-related state secrets imparted to her by President John Kennedy, and that there was a criminal conspiracy to cover up the circumstances of her death.

UFOs and the Murder of Marilyn Monroe

A Critical Study

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890--1937) has been described variously as the successor to Edgar Allan Poe, a master of the Gothic horror tale, and one of the father of modern supernatural fantasy fiction. Published originally in pulp magazines, his works have grown in popularity since his death, so that more than thirty editions are currently in print. Yet only recently has Lovecraft received serious attention from literary critics. And until now no one has examined his work from a post-structuralist perspective. Donald Burleson fills that void, for the first time in an extended study bringing the resources of deconstruction to bear on the works of this modern gothicist. In an introductory overview, Burleson gives an unusually readable account of deconstruction theory and terminology, a field all too often discussed in densely opaque fashion. He goes on to deconstruct thirteen Lovecraft stories, delving into their fascinating etymological mazes, abundant ambiguities, and shifting levels of meanings. His lively and remarkably jargon-free readings explore Lovecraft's rich figurality to unprecedented depths. At the same time Burleson develops the view that in practicing self-subversion and structural displacement, literary texts perpetuate themselves. His final chapter explores the broad themes running though Lovecraft's fiction, arguing that these themes in themselves prefigure the deconstructive gesture. This insightful and provocative volume will go a long way toward displacing the label of popular writer and establishing Lovecraft as an important figure in American literature.

Disturbing the Universe

Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) has been described variously as the successor to Edgar Allan Poe, a master of the Gothic horror tale, and one of the fathers of modern supernatural fantasy fiction.

For nearly forty years, Donald R. Burleson has been a leading authority on H. P. Lovecraft. Beginning in the late 1970s, he has written article after article that have cumulatively reshaped our understanding of the dreamer from Providence. Among his earlier papers can be found searching analyses of the influence of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, and others on Lovecraft; studies of the topographical sources for such major stories as "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Whisperer in Darkness"; and pioneering studies of mythic elements in "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Colour out of Space." Later essays by Burleson venture into more challenging territory, as his bold adoption of poststructuralist literary methodologies have led to new ways of looking at Lovecraft's work. Examing the Providence writer through the lens of deconstruction, Burleson provides innovative interpretations of Lovecraft's prose style, his use of gender, and his relations to such writers as Herman Melville and Friedrich Nietzsche. As a practicing mathematician, Burleson has also studied Lovecraft's use of cryptography and higher mathematics. Burleson is one of the most sensitive students of Lovecraft's oft-neglected poetry, writing penetrating analyses of such poems as "Nemesis," "The Ancient Track," and his touching poem on the death of a cat, "Little Sam Perkins." In all, this collection is a concentrated distillation of the decades of work by a pioneering scholar. Donald R. Burleson is the author of H. P. Lovecraft: A Critical Study (1983), Lovecraft: Disturbing the Universe (1990), and other works. He has also written novels and story collections, and is the publisher of Black Mesa Press. With his wife, the writer Mollie L. Burleson, he lives in Roswell, New Mexico.

Donald R. Burleson

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