Dissecting Hannibal Lecter

Benjamin Szumskyj, a private high school teacher and qualified library technician, has edited anthologies and essay collections on such authors as Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Thomas Harris and William Peter Blatty. He is also the editor of Studies in Fantasy Literature and Studies in Australian Weird Fiction. He lives in Melville, Western Australia.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Foreword by Daniel O’Brien      Preface      Introduction      1. American Gothic: Liminality and the Gothic in Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter NovelsPETER MESSENT      2. Hannibal at the Lectern: A Textual Analysis of Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s Character and Motivations in Thomas Harris’s Red Dragon and The Silence of the LambsJOHN GOODRICH      3. Gothic Romance and Killer Couples in Black Sunday and HannibalPHILIP L. SIMPSON      4. The Butterfly and the Beast: The Imprisoned Soul in Thomas Harris’s Lecter TrilogyROBERT H. WAUGH      5. This Is the Blind Leading the Blind: Noir, Horror and Reality in Thomas Harris’s Red DragonDAVIDE MANA      6. From Red Dragon to ManhunterTONY WILLIAMS      7. Suspense vs. Horror: The Case of Thomas HarrisS.T. JOSHI      8. Transmogrified Gothic: The Novels of Thomas HarrisTONY MAGISTRALE      9. Hannibal Rising: Look Back in AngerALI S. KARIM      10. Before Her Lambs Were Silent: Reading Gender and the Feminine in Red DragonPHILLIP A. ELLIS      11. Black Sunday, Black September: Thomas Harris’s Thriller, from Novel to Film, and the Terror of RealitySCOTT D. BRIGGS      12. Morbidity of the Soul: An Appreciation of HannibalBENJAMIN SZUMSKYJ      Afterword: MythmakerCHARLES GRAMLICH      About the Contributors      Index

“a fine job”—Dead Reckonings; “a welcome and insightful examination of an important cultural icon”—Journal of American Studies; “an erudite collection of scholarly essays...offers many insights into the literary journey undertaken by Thomas Harris...the book is successful in encouraging the Harris fan to delve deeper into the psyche of the novelist and his creations”—HorrorScope.