by Matt Cardin
When Kafka died, he left behind a cache of manuscripts, with instructions to his friend and executor, Max Brod, to destroy them. In one of the most consequential and humane decisions in literary history, Brod ignored the author’s orders and released many of the unpublished works, beginning in 1925 with the novel The Trial. This novel focuses on a bank clerk named Josef K. who is subjected to a systematic, nightmarish prosecution for crimes that are never specified, by an authority whose jurisdiction and motives are never clearly articulated. This theme of paranoiac entrapment in inscrutable bureaucratic intrigues is even more powerfully conveyed by Kafka’s novel The Castle (1926), wherein the protagonist, known simply as K., attempts to gain access to the faceless agents who inhabit the eponymous structure, which governs a small village in which he takes up residence. These two novels, when published and translated, secured for Kafka an international reputation as one of the most important satirists of modern experience, with its aimless anonymity, its subversion of the search for transcendent meaning, and its subordination of individual autonomy in abstract systems of management and control. The term “Kafkaesque” has been coined to describe the characteristic atmosphere of his fictions: bleak, darkly comic, full of a pervading sense of alienation and despair.
Kafka’s influence on the genres of the fantastic during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been immense yet somewhat amorphous. An identifiable strain of Kafkaesque surreality runs through such mainstream authors as Dino Buzzati and José Saramago, yet locating a similar tradition within genre fantasy and horror is more difficult. Isolated works such as Christopher Fowler’s The Bureau of Lost Souls (1989) and China Miéville’s The City and the City (2009) have struck chords of macabre absurdism reminiscent of The Castle and The Trial, and arguably the creepy sense of alienation and sinister conspiracy that informs the best short fiction of Robert Aickman and Ramsey Campbell has roots in Kafka’s chilly dreamscapes. Kafka has likewise influenced cinematic horror, as such strange and unsettling films as Roman Polanski’s The Tenant (1976) and Patrick Bokanowski’s The Angel (1982) attest. Kafka’s own The Trial was memorably filmed by Orson Welles in 1963.
Rob Latham
See also: Aickman, Robert; Body Horror; Buzzati, Dino; Campbell, Ramsey; The Grotesque; Miéville, China; Psychological Horror; Surrealism; Transformation and Metamorphosis; The Uncanny; Part Two, Themes, Topics, and Genres: Horror Literature as Social Criticism and Commentary.
Further Reading
Gross, Ruth V., ed. 1990. Critical Essays on Franz Kafka. Boston: G. K. Hall.
Kafka, Franz. [1915] 2016. The Metamorphosis. Translated by Susan Bernofsky. Edited by Mark M. Anderson. Norton Critical Editions. New York and London: Norton.
Pawel, Ernst. 1984. The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Ternes, Hans. 1985. “The Fantastic in the Work of Franz Kafka.” In The Scope of the Fantastic: Theory, Technique, Major Authors, edited by Robert A. Collins and Howard D. Pierce, 221–228. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
KEENE, BRIAN (1967–)
Brian Keene is a popular American author of horror in both novel and comic book mediums. He is noted as one of the most celebrated writers in the pulp tradition and is often credited with assisting in the rise of popular interest in zombies with his 2003 novel The Rising. He was born in 1967 in North Carolina and currently lives in Pennsylvania.
Keene won his first Bram Stoker Award for Jobs in Hell, an email newsletter in the late 1990s and early 2000s that published articles, commentary, and market news of the horror genre. After joining the horror world with his nonfiction work, Keene entered the horror fiction scene with the publication of his first novel, The Rising. Featuring a zombie apocalypse in which a particle accelerator experiment allows dead bodies to be possessed by demons, it won a Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel. The Rising follows a diverse set of characters trying to survive in a nightmarish world that is a strange blend of classic zombie stories, cosmic horror, the occult, and science fiction. Keene expanded this fictional universe with subsequent sequels and short stories.
Keene’s other work includes the Earthworm Gods series, set in a world ravaged by floods, strange creatures, and giant monstrous worms. The series is often compared to H. P. Lovecraft for its cosmic horror, though it maintains Keene’s twenty-first-century writing style, which is distinct from Lovecraft’s deliberately archaic style.
Keene also writes in other mediums, such as comic books. Representative titles include Dead of Night: Devil Slayer, Doom Patrol, and a twenty-five-issue run of his own original title, The Last Zombie.
Mark Athitakis describes Keene’s work as being a product of the milieu established by Richard Matheson and Stephen King. His work is also often inspired by Lovecraft. Andrea Johnson approvingly notes that Keene writes “fiction that smacks you in the face” (Johnson 2015). An often-used setting for Keene is a postapocalyptic earth, where everyday people must find a way to survive harsh and brutal locales filled with monsters. Keene commonly explores the theme of faith in his writings, be it in the form of characters who worship strange and monstrous creatures or the author’s requirement that his own readers have faith that his characters will survive and complete their goals.
Keene remains an active participant of the horror genre with his novels, stories, essays and blog posts, weekly podcasts, and Internet presence. He has won multiple Stokers and was given the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award in 2014.
Chun H. Lee
See also: Bram Stoker Award; King, Stephen; Lovecraft, H. P.; Matheson, Richard; Zombies; Part One, Horror through History: Horror in the Twenty-First Century; Part Two, Themes, Topics, and Genres: Apocalyptic Horror; Horror Comics.
Further Reading
Athitakis, Mark. 2004. “Horror Books: The Old Horror and the New Dark Fantasy.” New York Times. October 31. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/books/review/horror-books-the-old-horror-and-the-new-dark-fantasy.html?_r=0.
“Brian Keene.” 2009. Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale.
The Horror Show with Brian Keene. Accessed August 22, 2016. http://www.thehorrorshowwithbriankeene.com.
Johnson, Andrea. 2015. “Interview with Brian Keene.” Apex Magazine. February 3. http://www.apex-magazine.com/interview-with-brian-keene.
KETCHUM, JACK (1946–)
Jack Ketchum is the pseudonym for Dallas Mayr, an American writer who has been given the title “the scariest guy in America” by Stephen King. Ketchum is a man who has held numerous titles, including actor, singer, and lumber salesman. He also worked at Scott Meredith Literary Agency, where he was responsible for acquiring Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. Ketchum himself is a prolific writer who has written more than twenty novels and novellas, five of which have been turned into movies.
In the 1980s, Ketchum’s fiction contributed to the splatterpunk movement in the horror genre, characterized by extreme violence and visceral scenes of unflinching horror. Off Season, published in 1980 by Ballantine, established his reputation as one of the originators of extreme horror, as it tells the story of a group of tourists who encounter a family of cannibals in the woods. The novel also establishes a common theme in Ketchum’s works: breaking down the ideas of civilization and savagery by examining the kind of circumstances in which normally peaceable people can turn to violence. Though the novel sold over 250,000 copies, it was also widely panned when readers were outraged at the gruesome detail in which Ketchum described the depravity of his characters. The publisher initially requested that Ketchum trim some of the excessive gore from his book; eventually, Ballantine retreated altogether, refusing any more printings after the first run, despite strong sales for the first-time novelist. His second novel, Hide and Seek, which was published in 1984, is a more restrained book, though his career had not yet recovered from Off Season. He continued to write, producing Cover (1987) and She Wakes (1989), a slight departure from true horror, focusing more on the supernatural. Ketchum returned to h
is original affinity for excessive gore and detailed, sometimes sexual violence with one of his more infamous novels, The Girl Next Door (1989), which portrays in brutal detail the torture and eventual murder of a teenage girl. Joyride (1994) and Stranglehold (1995) followed before Ketchum would begin to receive critical acclaim for his writing.
Ketchum’s 1994 story “The Box” won him his first Bram Stoker Award for short fiction. The following years would be filled with award nominations. Right to Life (1999), a novella published by Cemetery Dance, was nominated for another Bram Stoker Award, this time for Best Long Fiction, as was Gone (2000, nominated for Best Short Fiction) and The Lost (2001, for Best Novel). He would win the Bram Stoker again—twice—in 2003 for Peaceable Kingdom, which won Best Collection, and Closing Time, which won Best Long Fiction. Ketchum’s other novels include Red (1995), Ladies’ Night (1997), The Crossings (2003), and Old Flames (2008); he also wrote Masks (1999), with Edward Lee, and Triage (2001), a collection of three novellas, written with Edward Lee and Richard Laymon. Ketchum’s short fiction has been included in numerous collections and magazines.
Many of Ketchum’s stories and novels have been adapted into films, including The Lost (2006), The Girl Next Door (2007), Red (2008), and The Offspring (2009). In 2008, Ketchum began a collaboration with horror film director Lucky McKee, director of movies such as May and All Cheerleaders Die. McKee was the original director of Red, and he was instrumental in bringing the novel to the screen; however, after production issues, McKee withdrew and was replaced by director Trygve Allister Diesen. McKee and Ketchum continued their collaboration, though, writing several books together: The Woman (2010), I’m Not Sam (2012), and The Secret Lives of Souls: A Novel (2016). I’m Not Sam was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction and the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novella. McKee directed the film version of The Woman, which caused a controversy when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. The story itself is a brutal one. The Woman tells the story of a seemingly average suburban family that finds a feral woman who has been living in the woods. When they try to civilize her, the line between savage and savior becomes unclear. Like many of Ketchum’s works, its violence is unflinching, particularly in its scenes depicting rape and sexual torture; as such, the film drew attention when a theatergoer walked out during a screening, vocally protesting what he considered gratuitous cruelty and misogyny. The rant went viral when a video was posted on YouTube. Even with the negative press, The Woman still did well on the festival circuit, winning the Grand Prize and the Audience Award at the Festival Européen du Film Fantastique de Strasbourg. Ketchum’s short story “The Box” was adapted for the horror anthology XX (2016), a collection of short horror films all directed by women, with female leads. “The Box” is directed by Jovanka Vuckovic. Ketchum can be seen in several of his films as an actor in small roles.
Ketchum was the 2011 Grand Master at the World Horror Convention. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award and lifetime membership status from the Horror Writer’s Association. He has collected some of his life stories and successes in his memoir, Book of Souls. Many of his books, including the original, fully detailed version of Off Season, have been republished, reintroducing readers to the man who has been called the “godfather of splatterpunk.”
Lisa Kröger
See also: Bram Stoker Award; The Girl Next Door; Shirley Jackson Awards; Splatterpunk.
Further Reading
Boden, John. 2012. “Digging in the Dirt: A Conversation with Jack Ketchum.” Shock Totem 5.
Castleberry, Gary. “The Scariest Man in America: An Interview with Jack Ketchum.” Living Dead 4: 62–64.
Hall, Tina. 2013. “Jack Ketchum.” The Damned Book of Interviews. Hertford, NC: Crossroad Press. Kindle edition.
Hatfull, Jonathan. 2013. “Jack Ketchum on Human Monsters and Writing Horror.” SciFiNow, October 16. http://www.scifinow.co.uk/interviews/jack-ketchum-on-human-monsters-and-writing-horror.
Kelleghan, Fiona. 2003. “Ketchum, Jack 1946–.” Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror, edited by Richard Bleiler. 2nd ed., vol. 2, 517–523. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Ketchum, Jack. 2011. Book of Souls. Hertford, NC: Crossroad Press. Kindle edition.
KIERNAN, CAITLÍN R. (1964–)
Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan is an Irish American author who has produced a large, influential, and celebrated body of speculative fiction, most of it in a weird or dark fantastic vein. Kiernan has written in a wide variety of forms and genres, having published ten novels and more than two hundred works of short fiction in addition to scripting the comic book series The Dreaming (1996–2000, a series that spun off from Neil Gaiman’s seminal Sandman books) and Alabaster (2013–2016, a series that follows Dancy Flammarion, a character who first appears in Kiernan’s 2003 novel Threshold). Before turning to writing fiction full time, Kiernan trained as a vertebrate paleontologist, working both in a museum and as a university lecturer. Her scientific background is reflected in her research-intensive and precisely observational approach to fiction. Her career as a professional author began with the story “Persephone” in 1995, and her first novel, Silk, was published to critical acclaim in 1998. Her more recent, and thematically interlinked, novels The Red Tree (2008) and The Drowning Girl (2012) are Kiernan’s most stylistically and structurally complex to date, and both have been optioned for development as feature films.
Kiernan’s literary influences are numerous and include such varied figures as William Faulkner, Peter Straub, Angela Carter, William S. Burroughs, Harlan Ellison, Arthur Machen, and Lewis Carroll. However, probably the most important in shaping her work have been H. P. Lovecraft, whose concepts of cosmic indifferentism and deep time are central themes in Kiernan’s fiction, and Shirley Jackson, whose understated modernization of the female Gothic informs Kiernan’s sympathetic and immersive approach to character.
Despite its scope and diversity, over the course of her career Kiernan’s writing has been unified by a number of shared characteristics. Inspired by the work of Swiss analytic psychologist C. G. Jung and American anomalous researcher Charles Fort, her approach fuses autobiography with fiction, coincidence with causality, randomness with pattern, and subject with object. She is known for testing the limits of genre writing and for experimenting with narrative convention. While Kiernan eschews foregrounding identity politics, viewing herself as chiefly “a writer” rather than a female writer or a queer writer, her experience as a transsexual and lesbian nevertheless deeply infuses her fiction. Kiernan often queers tropes and literary traditions associated with Gothic and horror fiction, an approach she describes as a “feminizing of the weird.” Her fiction interrogates received wisdom not just about the relationship between gender and literary genre, but about that between sexuality and life, human as well as alien. In this respect, her work is more closely related to that of earlier speculative fiction writers James Tiptree Jr. and Octavia E. Butler than to that of contemporary horror writers such as Ramsey Campbell or Thomas Ligotti, despite the importance both these latter figures have had in shaping Kiernan’s visions of the weird.
Unlike Campbell or Ligotti, who are largely content with the label “horror writer,” Kiernan has consistently rejected it, viewing it as primarily an outdated marketing category that creates distorted expectations contrary to her authorial intentions. Rather than scaring, shocking, or disturbing the reader, Kiernan’s writing is primarily concerned with empathetically portraying the alien, the outsider, and the other, and with expanding, in her words, readers’ “mental and moral horizons” (Baker 2012). It was this emphasis on imaginative identification and empathy that, early in her career, led Neil Gaiman to characterize her as “the poet and bard of the wasted and lost” (Alexander 2013), and Jeff VanderMeer to declare more recently that “more than any other writer of the past thirty years, Kiernan places the reader somewhere alien and inhabits points of view that seem both luminous and edgy” (VanderMeer 2012).<
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Despite her rejection of the label “horror,” Kiernan’s emphasis on psychological alienation, dark eroticism, and the transgression of social, cultural, and generic boundaries, as well as her frequently harrowing use of supernatural elements, has led to her fiction’s enthusiastic reception by self-identified readers and writers of horror. This is reflected in the number of genre awards that Kiernan’s work has accumulated, including two Bram Stoker Awards, four International Horror Guild Awards, as well as two James Tiptree Jr. Awards, two World Fantasy Awards, and a Locus Award.
Sean Moreland
See also: Barker, Clive; Brite, Poppy Z.; Butler, Octavia E.; Campbell, Ramsey; The Drowning Girl; Jackson, Shirley; Ligotti, Thomas; Lovecraft, H. P.; Straub, Peter; VanderMeer, Jeff; Part Two, Themes, Topics, and Genres: Weird and Cosmic Horror Fiction.
Further Reading
Alexander, Niall. 2013. “Short Fiction Spotlight: The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories.” Tor.com, November 26. http://www.tor.com/2013/11/26/short-fiction-spotlight-the-apes-wife-and-other-stories.
Baker, Bill. 2012. “A Pale Rider Approaches: Interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan.” TMR, April 5. http://www.themortonreport.com/books/news/comics-a-pale-rider-approaches.
“Caitlin R. Kiernan.” 2015. Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale.
Jones, Jeremy. 2010. “Finding the Language I Need: An Interview with Caitlín R. Kiernan.” Clarkesworld 45. http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kiernan_interview.
Mann, James. 2002. “Caitlín R. Kiernan: Pain, Wonder, and Really Old Things.” Ink19, March 28. http://ink19.com/2002/03/magazine/interviews/caitlin-r-kiernan.
