The terrifying conversation. : A thematical and narratolocial study og Damien Echols' autobiography Life After Death and Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot

This paper investigates narrative and thematic structures in Damien Echols’ autobiography Life After Death (2012) and Stephen King’s horror novel ’Salem’s Lot (1975). In Life After Death Echols tells the tale of his eighteen-year incarceration on Death Row in Arkansas/USA. He also uses his childhood memories to overcome hardships in the prison system. ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King deals with the invasion of vampires in a small town in rural Maine in the North East corner of the United States. The author of this study discusses if and how Damien Echols was inspired in his writing by the writings of Stephen King. Considering the length of this study the author has chosen to limit the comparison of Echols’ autobiography with Stephen King to only one of King’s novels, ‘Salem’s Lot. One issue of discussion in this study is as to wether it is legitimate to compare two different genres and to what length they correspond with each other on a literary level. Thus the choice of certain narrative tools for the analysis. The author of this study uses theories based on the works of literary theorist Gérard Genette and also discusses autobiography as genre. Themes that are explored in the analysis are memories, horror, evil places and children at risk, the latter especially in the modern American horror genre. The study highlights that Damien Echols frequently read works by Stephen King, both during his adolescence and in prison, and was inspired by a certain “beat” in King’s novels. Furthermore, both authors use themes as the above mentioned memories, horror, evil places and children at risk in their works. This paper concludes with showing that Echols is influenced in his writing by King’s horror novels, both on a narrative level and a thematic level