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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

7. Dean Koontz and the Problem with Power

Author : Michael J. Blouin

Published in: Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972–2017

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This final chapter explores a core contradiction within American liberalism: over the course of the past half century, the subject has been tasked with ascetically rooting out Power in its nefarious webs (internal and external) while aesthetically fostering personal power through entrepreneurial selfhood. This paradox, parsed out in detail in the preceding chapters, informs the Foucauldian character of Dean Koontz’s thrillers. Is the goal of American liberalism to abolish Power or to perfect it? Upon considering confluences and contradictions, one might start to imagine the future of the liberal project—or its imminent collapse.

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Title: Dean Koontz and the Problem with Power
Author: Michael J. Blouin
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972–2017
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-89386-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-89387-7

Copyright Year: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89387-7_7