Neo-Gothic Narratives

Illusory Allusions from the Past

Edited by Sarah E. Maier, Brenda Ayres

Publication date:

31 March 2020

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

229x153mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781785272172

Neo-Gothic Narratives defines and theorises what, exactly, qualifies as such a text, what mobilises the employment of the Gothic to speak to our own times, whether nostalgia plays a role and whether there is room for humour besides the sobriety and horror in these narratives across various media. What attracts us to the Gothic that makes us want to resurrect, reinvent, echo it? Why do we let the Gothic redefine us? Why do we let it haunt us? Does it speak to us through intertexuality, self-reflectivity, metafiction, immersion, affect? Are we reclaiming the history of women and other subalterns in the Gothic that had been denied in other forms of history? Are we revisiting the trauma of English colonisation and seeking national identity? Or are we simply tourists who enjoy cruising through the otherworld? The essays in this volume investigate both the readerly experience of Neo-Gothic narratives as well as their writerly pastiche.

Acknowledgements; Introduction Neo- Gothicism: Persistent Haunting of the Past and Horrors Anew, Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier; Chapter One “Through a glass darkly”: The Gothic Trace, Brenda Ayres; Chapter Two Dark Descen(den)ts: Neo- Gothic Monstrosity and the Women of Frankenstein, Sarah E. Maier; Chapter Three Theorising Race, Slavery and the New Imperial Gothic in Neo- Victorian Returns to Wuthering Heights, Carol Margaret Davison; Chapter Four Toxic Neo- Gothic Masculinity: Mr. Hyde, Tyler Durden and Donald J. Trump as Angry White men, Martin Danahay; Chapter Five Shadows of the Vampire: Neo-Gothicism in Dracula, Ripper Street and What We Do in the Shadows, Jamil Mustafa; Chapter Six “Here we are, again! ”: Neo-Gothic Narratives of Textual Haunting, from Peter Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem to The Limehouse Golem, Ashleigh Prosser; Chapter Seven Spectral Females, Spectral Males: Coloniality and Gender in Neo- Gothic Australian novels, Kate Livett; Chapter Eight “We Are all humans”: Self- Aware Zombies and Neo- Gothic Posthumanism, Karen E. Macfarlane; Chapter Nine Neo- Gothic Dinosaurs and the Haunting of History, Jessica Gildersleeve and Nike Sulway; Chapter Ten Doctor Who ’s Shaken Faith in Science: Mistrusting Science from the Gothic to the Neo- Gothic, Geremy Carnes; Chapter Eleven The Devil’s in It: The Bible as Gothic, Brenda Ayres; Notes on Contributors; Index.

“Neo-Gothic Narratives offers an invaluable contribution to the field of Gothic studies, exploring our fascination with the Gothic past in contemporary literature, film and television. From vampires to zombies, dinosaurs to Dr Who, the essays in this collection are thrilling, chilling and consistently insightful.” —Helen Davies, Head of English, Newman University, UK