Creating Suspense Across Versions: Genetic Narratology and Stephen King’s IT

How does a novelist create and enhance suspense? How is suspense fine-tuned across multiple drafts and proofs, and what is the role of editors and proofreaders in such an undertaking? In this FWO-funded research project, the University of Antwerp has the unique opportunity to look over the shoulder of one of the masters of suspense, Stephen King, and to study the material evidence of the writing and publication process of his 1986 masterpiece IT.

This completed project ran between January 2022 and December 2024. The research team consisted of Luc Herman, Dirk Van Hulle, and Vincent Neyt. Vincent Neyt wrote a PhD in which he zoomed in on the changes made across versions to the text’s narrative pace, characterization and focalization so as to maximize suspense. Both the author’s solitary work on his drafts and the subsequent collaboration with editors were examined.

The project also produced a monograph, Genetic Narratology: Analysing Narrative across Versions, an open access publication by Open Book Publishers, based on contributions to the conference workshop “Genetic Narratology” (23-24 Febr. 2023 Oxford). The volume includes 16 essays, three of which by the project members.