The History of Gothic Fiction Contributor(s): Ellis, Markman (Author) |
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ISBN: 0748611959 ISBN-13: 9780748611959 Publisher: Edinburgh University Press OUR PRICE: $38.90 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2000 Annotation: "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 Walpole ( "The Castle of Otranto"), Austen ( "Northanger Abbey"), Wollstonecraft ( "The Wrongs of Woman"), Shelley ( "Frankenstein"), Stoker ( "Dracula"), and Halperin ( "White Zombie"), the argument proceeds on historicist principles, analyzing the peculiar tone of these fictions. The final chapters on the vampire and the zombie examine how the undead of gothic terror are embedded in an argument from history. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Gothic & Romance - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh |
Dewey: 823.087 |
LCCN: 2001369160 |
Physical Information: 0.6" H x 6.12" W x 9.2" (0.85 lbs) 224 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: 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 debat |