Introduction

The Stuttering Son: A Literary Study of Boys and Their Fathers examines stuttering, a condition which overwhelmingly affects boys, in terms of the complex relationships a number of male authors have had with their fathers.

Authors and Their Personal Connections

Most of these writers, from Cotton Mather to John Updike, were themselves stutterers; for two others, Melville and Kafka, the focus shifts to how similar family tensions contributed to their interest in the related condition of anorexia.

Patricidal Impulse and Literary Analysis

A final section looks at the patricidal impulse lurking behind much of this analysis, as evident in Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Nietzsche.

Conclusion

By focusing on the issue of a boy’s emotional development, this book attempts to re-establish the value of a broadly psychological approach to understanding stuttering.