Terror(ism) in Literature: ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’: A Review

Abstract

Authors either use terror as a topic or theme in order to justify the acts of the artist as revolutionist or as “terror-ist.” This paper aims to indicate the relation between terror as an essential mode in art and literature in the form of textuality with reference to The Man Who Was Thursday. Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s enigmatic novel, with its humorous tone and fantastic elements contending crucial arguments, stresses its paradoxical situation regarding terror(ism) in the subtitle: A Nightmare. Yet, the optimistic end and the function of dream to reveal the mythical essence of terror(ism) ironizes the ‘nightmare.’

Keywords

• Artist as terror-ist, terror(ism), Gilbert Keith Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

References

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