From ghosts to vampires, from ruined castles to steampunk fashion, the Gothic is a term that evokes all things strange, haunted and sinister. This volume offers a new look at the world of the Gothic, from its origins in the eighteenth century to its reemergence today. Each short essay is dedicated to a single text – a novel, a film, a comic book series, a festival – that serves as a lens to explore the genre. Original readings of classics like The Mysteries of Udolpho (Ann Radcliffe) and Picnic at Hanging Rock (Joan Lindsay) are combined with unique insights into contemporary examples like the music of Mexican rock band Caifanes, the novels Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer), Goth (Otsuichi) and The Paying Guests (Sarah Waters), and the films Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro) and Ex Machina (Alex Garland). Together the essays provide innovative ways of understanding key texts in terms of their Gothic elements. Invaluable for students, teachers and fans alike, the book’s accessible style allows for an engaging look at the spectral and uncanny nature of the Gothic.
Author(s): Simon Bacon
Series: Genre Fiction and Film Companions
Publisher: Peter Lang
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 264
City: Basel
Dedication
Contents
Simon BaconIntroduction
Part I: Ideologies, Imperialism, and the Gothic
Arthur Machen’s The Three Impostors (1895) – Victorian Gothic • Justin Sausman
Richard Marsh’s The Joss: A Reversion (1901) – Imperial Gothic • Johan Höglund
Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) – Postcolonial Gothic • Tabish Khair
Bill Condon’s Gods and Monsters (1998) – War Gothic • Steffen Hantke
Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland; or The Transformation (1798) – Transatlantic Gothic • James Peacock
Part II: America and the Gothic
Robert Bloch’s American Gothic (1974) – American Gothic • Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet
Clarence John Laughlin’s Ghosts Along the Mississippi (1948) – Southern Gothic • Timothy Jones
Brandon Massey’s Dark Corner (2004) – African American Gothic • Maisha L. Wester
Ron Honthaner’s The House on Skull Mountain (1974) – Zombie Gothic • Sarah Juliet Lauro
Part III: Gothic Territories
Caifanes (1987–Present) – Mexican Gothic • Enrique Ajuria Ibarra and Luis Daniel Martínez Álvarez
Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967/1975) – Australian Gothic • Ashleigh Prosser
Otsuichi’s Goth (2002) – Japanese Gothic • Katarzyna Ancuta
Whitby Goth Weekend (1994–Present) – Gothic Subcultures • Claire Nally
Aideen Barry’s Possession (2011) – Suburban/Domestic Gothic • Tracy Fahey
Part IV: Gender, Sexuality, and the Gothic
Matthew Lewis’s The Monk (1796) – Queer Gothic • Max Fincher
Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) – Female Gothic • Kathleen Hudson
Sarah Waters’s The Paying Guests (2014) – Postfeminist Gothic • Gina Wisker
A. S. Byatt’s ‘The Dried Witch’ (1987) – Postmodern Gothic • Maria Beville
Part V: Media and Mediums of the Gothic
Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill House (1749) – Architectural Gothic • Peter N. Lindfield
Grant Morrison, Dave McKean, and Gaspar Saladino’s Arkham Asylum (1989) – Gothic Comics • Julia Round
Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak (2015) – Gothic Film • Xavier Aldana Reyes
Tale of Tales’s The Path (2009) – Gaming and the Gothic • Emily Flynn-Jones
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) – Food Gothic • Lorna Piatti-Farnell
Part VI: Gothic Futures
Max Brooks’s World War Z (2006) – Neoliberal Gothic • Linnie Blake
China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station (2000) – Gothic Literary Science Fiction • Sara Wasson
Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014) – Gothic and the New Weird • Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
Koji Suzuki’s Edge (2012) – Quantum Gothic • Elana Gomel
Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2015) – Vampire Gothic • Simon Bacon
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
