E-Book Overview
This guide provides an overview of the most significant issues and debates in Gothic studies. Provides an overview of the most significant issues and debates in Gothic studies. Explains the origins and development of the term Gothic. Explores the evolution of the Gothic in both literary and non-literary forms, including art, architecture and film. Features authoritative readings of key works, ranging from Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto to Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. Considers recurrent concerns of the Gothic such as persecution and paranoia, key motifs such as the haunted castle, and figures such as the vampire and the monster. Includes a chronology of key Gothic texts, including fiction and film from the 1760s to the present day, and a comprehensive bibliography.
E-Book Content
BLACKWELL GUIDES
TO
L I T E R AT U R E
Series editor: Jonathan Wordsworth The English Renaissance Children’s Literature The Gothic Twentieth-Century American Poetry
Andrew Hadfield Peter Hunt David Punter and Glennis Byron Christopher MacGowan
© 2004 by David Punter and Glennis Byron 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of David Punter and Glennis Byron to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Punter, David. The Gothic / David Punter and Glennis Byron. p. cm. – (Blackwell guides to literature) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-631-22062-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 0-631-22063-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Horror tales, English – History and criticism. 2. Horror tales, American – History and criticism. 3. Gothic revival (Literature) – United States. 4. Gothic revival (Literature) – Great Britain. I. Byron, Glennis, 1955– II. Title. III. Series. PR830.T3P856 2004 823¢.0872909 – dc21 2003012537 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12.5 Galliard by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by T. J. International, Padstow, Cornwall For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com
How to Use This Book
ix
Chronology
xi
Introduction
xviii 1
Backgrounds and Contexts Civilization and the Goths Gothic in the Eighteenth Century Gothic and Romantic Science, Industry and the Gothic Victorian Gothic Art and Architecture Gothic and Decadence Imperial Gothic Gothic Postmodernism Postcolonial Gothic Goths and Gothic Subcultures Gothic Film Gothic and the Graphic Novel
3 7 13 20 26 32 39 44 50 54 59 65 71 77
Writers of Gothic William Harrison Ainsworth (1805–1882) Jane Austen (1775–1817) J. G. Ballard (1930–) Iain Banks (1954–) John Banville (1945–) Clive Barker (1952–) v
79 80 82 83 84 85
Contents William Beckford (1760–1844) E. F. Benson (1867–1940) Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951) Robert Bloch (1917–1994) Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835–1915) Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) and Emily Brontë (1818–1848) Charles Brockden Brown (1771–1810) Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) Ramsey Campbell (1946–) Angela Carter (1940–1992) Robert W. Chambers (1865–1933) Wilkie Collins