Gothic Literature (edinburgh Critical Guides To Literature)

Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature Series Editors: Martin Halliwell and Andy Mousley This series provides accessible yet provocative introductions to a wide range of literatures. The volumes will initiate and deepen the reader’s understanding of key literary movements, periods and genres, and consider debates that inform the past, present and future of literary study. Resources such as glossaries of key terms and details of archives and internet sites are also provided, making each volume a comprehensive critical guide. Smith GOTHIC LITERATURE The book opens with a chronology and an introduction to the principal texts and key critical terms, followed by four chapters: The Gothic Heyday 1760–1820; Gothic 1820–1865; Gothic Proximities 1865–1900; and the Twentieth Century. The discussion examines how the Gothic has developed in different national contexts and in different forms, including novels, novellas, poems and films. Each chapter concludes with a close reading of a specific text – Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Dracula and The Silence of the Lambs – to illustrate the ways in which contextual discussion informs critical analysis. The book ends with a conclusion outlining possible future developments within scholarship on the Gothic. Key Features • Provides a single, comprehensive and accessible introduction to Gothic literature • Offers a coherent account of the historical development of the Gothic in a range of literary and national contexts • Introduces the ways in which critical theories of class, gender, race and national identity have been applied to Gothic texts • Includes a list of essential resources and a guide to further reading Edinburgh Critical Guides This introductory study provides a thorough grounding in both the history of Gothic literature and the way in which Gothic texts have been (and can be) critically read. GOTHIC LITERATURE Andrew Smith Andrew Smith is Professor of English Studies at the University of Glamorgan. His nine published books include Victorian Demons (2004), Gothic Radicalism (2000), and Teaching the Gothic (edited with Anna Powell: 2006). Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LF www.eup.ed.ac.uk Edinburgh Edinburgh Critical Guides Andrew Smith GOTHIC LITERATURE ISBN 978 0 7486 2370 9 Cover design: Michael Chatfield Smith cover 2.indd 1 3285 349 14/3/07 16:59:59 362 320 281 301 2718