In the following essay, Davis explores King's treatment of childhood in his short fiction and novels.

In the following essay, Cassuto finds parallels between “The Raft” and the slasher-film genre, and views the mysterious monster in the story as an embodiment of the vagina dentata.

In the following essay, Reino provides a thematic and stylistic analysis of the novellas comprising Different Seasons.

In the following essay, Egan discusses how the sacral parody common to gothic literature is at work in King's fiction.

Biddle is an American educator and critic. In the following essay, he examines The Body as a narrative that follows the traditional pattern of the "mythic journey."

In the following essay, Egan analyzes King's use of elements of the gothic and the melodramatic in his work.

In the following essay, Burns and Kanner discuss the relationship between women and evil in King's work and assert, "On a complex and subtextual level, women are represented in ways that reveal male fear and envy of female sexuality and reproductive biology."

In the following essay, Casebeer traces influences from King's life that have affected his writing and delineates different stages and common elements in his fiction.

In the following essay, DeCuir examines the themes of childbirth and horror in King's “The Reach.”

Heldreth is an American educator and critic. In the following essay, he provides a thematic analysis of The Body, discussing King's treatment of maturation and use of narrative writing to "[shape important experiences into a form to be communicated."]

In the following essay, McDowell asserts that King's novels are effective because of their rhythm.

In the following essay, Sanders relates King's story “The Monkey” to the film Forbidden Planet, in its psychic personification of the human id or subconscious.

In the following essay, Hohne analyzes the use of official and unofficial language in King's fiction.

Doty is an American educator and critic. In the following essay, he explores themes and narrative technique in "The Monkey. "

In the following essay, Magistrale explores the role of children in King's work.

In the following essay, Barker discusses King's success with, and commitment to, the horror genre.

In the following essay, Indick surveys techniques used by Stephen King to create fear in such novels as Carrie, Pet Sematary, and The Shining.

Morrell, Ryan, and Grant are all noted authors of horror and suspense fiction. In the following forum, which originally appeared in the journal Fantasy Newsletter in 1982, they each provide an analysis of one of the four novellas in the collection Different Seasons.

H. P. Lovecraft once called Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables "New England's greatest contribution to weird literature." Pace Hawthorne scholars, there's a new contender, out of Maine, for the title. At least booksellers today would be unanimous in citing Stephen King, author of Carrie, The Shining, Salem's Lot, The Stand, The Dead Zone, and now Firestarter, best sellers all, as the northeast's preeminent scribe of the spooky. King has not b...

The movie is Creepshow [directed by George A. Romero] and the script is by Stephen King, whose novels Carrie and The Shining became stunning films by Brian De Palma and Stanley Kubrick, and whose second novel, Salem's Lot, was a CBS mini series. That's the connection between King and Romero: a studio executive saw Romero's 1977 vampire movie, Martin, at a Utah film festival and asked him to direct Salem's Lot, a project from which Romero eventually removed himself. Nevertheless, ...

Those who have already rushed out to buy Different Seasons … may be a trifle shocked by what they have brought home: a collection of four novellas, only one of which offers the chills that have become King's trademark. The Breathing Method is an eerie account of a terribly unnatural childbirth. But the other three, though sporadically gruesome, come without King's customary trimmings. Gone are varieties of telekinesis (Carrie, Firestarter) and precognition (The Shining, The Dead Zone). ...

[The] arrival of a new Stephen King novel is something of an event: a minor event, perhaps, but still an event. And even when that novel is less than totally satisfying, as is the case with The Dead Zone, it is only slightly less. King, who explored psychokinesis in Carrie, vampirism in Salem's Lot, mediumship and places of evil in The Shining, applies his considerable writing skills to psychometry (not the science, but the paranormal phenomena) in The Dead Zone. His hero, John Smith—a name ch...