The Gothic and Grotesque in Barbara Gowdy’s Mister Sandman

The fiction of Barbara Gowdy is peopled with physically or spiritually aberrant characters that can trigger shock and disgust in readers. Her novel Mister Sandman (1995), however, calls for a more nuanced response to "the unusual," one triggered by Gowdy's parodic use of the gothic and grotesque as well as by instances of humour, comic relief, and a light-hearted tone. Such a combination of literary modes arouses sympathy for the novel's "monstrous" characters, making Mister Sandman representative of what Catherine Spooner calls the "Gothic-Carnivalesque." The novel's parodic rewriting of E.T.A. Hoffmann's short story "Der Sandmann" (1816), and Gowdy's use of grotesque imagery to produce humour rather than horror, are emblamatic of what Avril Horner and Sue Zlosnik call "the comic turn" in contemporary gothic fiction, and complicate the traditional concepts of the grotesque articulated by Wolfgang Kayser and Mikhail Bakhtin

Mr. Radio Man (Tell My Mammy To Come Back Home)

[Verse 1]Little broken hearted Sammy,Sitting on his Daddy’s kneeList’ning to the Radio,But his heart was aching so. Seems the angels took his Mammy,Any wonder why he sighed,While his Daddy fell asleep, Sammy then did creepTo the Radio and cried: [Verse 2]Ev’ry night this lonesome laddie, Wished Mammy was back home You would know the reason why, If you ever heard him sigh. Ev’ry night he asks his Daddy,“Why did Mammy go away?” Daddy turns his head and sighs,Tears come from his eyes, When he hear poor Sammy say: [Chorus]Mister Radioman tell my Mammy to come back homeWon’t you do what you canCause I’m so lonelyI’ve been list’ning in’ ev’ryday,Since she went away, But no word from Heaven’s been heard,Can’t the angels hear me pray? When the sandman is nigh,And to slumberland I must go.I know she hears me sigh, Over my RadioAnd the reason I’m sighing, crying, I’m all alone,Mister Radioman,Tell my Mammy to come back home. “Mister Radio home.

Girlhood, Disability, and Liminality in Barbara Gowdy's "Mister Sandman"

Barbara Gowdy’s 1996 novel Mister Sandman centers on the mysteriously silent figure of Joan Cannary, a mentally disabled child who yet does not become a spectacle of the grotesque in the mode quite standard for representations of the disabled female figures, as Rosemarie Garland Thomson noticed in her magisterial study Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. In her disability Gowdy’s Joan does not constitute a metaphor of the condition of her family, either, despite the transgressions they are prone to devote themselves to. The novel offers an open-minded outlook on transgression as a means of liberating oneself from the social constraints and from the self-imposed limitations. Joan’s eternal girlhood makes her a lens for the family members’ tendency to transgress against the norms, which is ultimately received with affirmation. Her figure offers a valuable commentary on other texts by Gowdy, which present a discourse on the liminality of human body and on the boundaries of identity

THX: Excerpts from Losing to the Sandman, a Novel-In-Progress

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard Colleg

Sleepy Head

[Verse 1] Evenin’ time down on the old plantation Pickaninny in his Mammy’s arms Tries with all his might To make his eyes shine bright Mammy knows it’s just an imitation Time for tired eyes to close in slumber Let old Mister Sandman have his way Sleepy eyelids close Off to bed he goes While his Mammy croons this lullabye [Chorus] Little Sleepy head Snuggle in your bed, ‘Cause your play time’s fled; Time for sleep instead; Heed the sandman’s cries, Close your drowsy eyes, Your old mammy’s wise You’re nothing but a little sleepy head. [Chorus

Spartan Daily, April 9, 1951

Volume 39, Issue 115https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/11536/thumbnail.jp

Tradition et modernité chez Neil Gaiman : le cas de American Gods et Good Omens

Structuring the stories of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods (2001) and Good Omens (1990), which he wrote in collaboration with Terry Pratchett, the contrasts between tradition and modernity are declared on several levels: the relationship between deities and technological advances, the preservation of traditional values in the idyllic small-town setting, as well as Neil Gaiman’s willingness to modernize the original works to fit current societal values. These apparent contrasts sometimes find a peaceful resolution, offering readers a welcome synthesis that encourages acceptance of modernity despite the sacrifices that must be made

Sets in Order: the magazine of square dancing.

Published monthly by and for Square Dancers and for the general enjoyment of all