Literary Concept of Dog: Dog’s Death Scenario in American Mass Fiction

Abstract

The present research featured the dog’s death scenario in twentieth-century American mass fiction based on Robert McCammon’s novels. The authors believe that the popularity of this scenario has its roots in mythology and precedent texts of the linguaculture in question. In global mythology, dogs dwell in the twilight zone between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Modern mass literature preserved this function of the dog as a guide into the other world. As a child extrapolates the episode of their pet’s death, they enter the threshold situation that triggers the awareness of their own death, thus providing access to experience available only at subconscious level. The authors review scientific publications that feature the concept of dog, give classical examples of American literature that shaped the etalon scenario of a dog’s death, and support them with episodes from R. McCammon’s works "Where the Red Fern Grows". Modern mass fiction adopted the etalon scenario of a dog’s death from a story by Wilson Rawls. This scenario presupposes obligatory stages of acceptance and coming-of-age. Any modifications of the etalon scenario result in stagnation or death of the personage.