ABSTRACT
The Shining (1977) illuminates the bloody debris left in the wake of American History, from the genocide of Native Americans through the “dirty wars” of the late twentieth century. As such, King’s novel treads on much of the same haunted terrain as Pet Sematary: specifically, The Shining considers a gory sense of History, driven by death and destruction, as well as the (faux) pivot into a sort of post-History, in which History’s oppressive hold might be broken, the cyclic spell broken, and an alternative future—one free of bloodshed—made possible. Beneath this superficial departure, however, The Shining (like Pet Sematary ) never truly lifts the perpetual violence that continues to grip American life like a fever dream.
