The History of Gothic Fiction debates the rise of the
genre from its origins in the late eighteenth-century
novel through nineteenth-century fictions of tyrants,
monsters, conspirators and vampires to the
twentieth-century zombie film. Approaching key novels by
authors such as Walpole (The Castle of Otranto),
Radcliffe (The Romance of the Forest and The Mysteries
of Udolpho), Austen (Northanger Abbey), Wollstonecraft
(The Wrongs of Woman), Lewis (The Monk), Shelley
(Frankenstein), Stoker (Dracula) and Halperin (White
Zombie), the argument proceeds on historicist
principles, analysing the peculiar tone of these
fictions and uncovering themes of credulity and reason,
secrecy and enlightenment, tyranny and libertinism,
sexuality and gender, race and miscegenation. The final
chapters on the vampire and the zombie examine how the
un-dead of gothic terror are embedded in an argument
from history. Written with an undergraduate audience in
mind, this text offers a synthesis of the main topics of
Gothic interest and clearly argued summaries of critical
debate.It signals its difference from popular
psychoanalytic readings of Gothic and argues instead for
a more complex, multilayered approach via an historicist
reading of Gothic fiction. Illustrated with ten black
and white plates and including up-to-date
bibliographies, this will be an ideal text for all those
with an interest in the Gothic. Key Features: * written
with an undergraduate audience in mind * covers topics
such as vampires, zombies, tyrants, banditti and
demon-lovers * offers clearly argued summaries of
critical debate |
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