"Something Very Old and Very Slow": Coraline, Uncanniness, and Narrative Form

While early reviews emphasized Coraline's gothic qualities and expressed reservations about the appropriateness of the book for young readers, Neil Gaiman contended that children were impervious to his novel's frightening elements. This paper argues that although categorical claims about children's readerly responses are problematic, the uncanny elements of Gaiman's novel open up the possibility of theorizing a double readership. It further contends that Coraline's varied responses to the uncanny disclose her psychological development and that Gaiman's technical innovations to the narrative pattern he inherits from Carroll allow for a particularly nuanced treatment of the psychological costs of maturation.