In demonstrating the global reach of Gothic
literatures, this collection takes up the influence of
the Gothic mode in literatures that may be
geographically remote from one another but still share
related issues of minor languages, nation building,
place and race. Suggesting that there is a parallel
between certain motifs and themes found in the Gothic of
the North (Scandinavia, Northern Europe and Canada) and
South (Australia, South Africa and the U.S. South), the
essays explore the transgressions and confusion of
borders and limits, whether they be linguistic,
literary, generic, class-based, gendered or sexual. The
volume includes essays on a wide diversity of authors
and topics: Jan Potocki, Gustav Meyrink, William Godwin,
Alan Hollinghurst, Marlene van Niekerk, John Richardson,
antislavery discourse and the Gothic imagination, the
Australian aboriginal Gothic, vampires of Post-Soviet
Gothic society, Danish, Swedish and Finnish fiction and
film, and the Canadian female Gothic and the death
drive. What distinguishes this book from other
collections on the Gothic is the coverage of themes and
literatures that are either lacking in the mainstream
research on the Gothic or are referred to only briefly
in other book-length studies. Experts in the Gothic and
those new to the field will appreciate the book's
commitment to situating Gothic sensibilities in an
international context.
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