Gothic Utterance: Voice, Speech and Death in the American Gothic

(Hardback)

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In-depth analysis of the American Gothic and the utterances of marginalized voices.

The Gothic has always been interested in strange utterances and unsettling voices, from half-heard ghostly murmurings to the terrible cries of the monstrous nonhuman. Gothic Utterance offers the first book-length study of the role such voices play in the Gothic tradition, exploring their prominence and importance in the literature produced in America between the Revolutionary War and the close of the nineteenth century. This book argues that the American Gothic foregrounds the overpowering effect and meaning of the voices of those on the margins of society, as well as the ethical charge of our encounter with such voices.

Reviews

"Articulately and elegantly written, the force of this groundbreaking book goes in two directions. It reflects powerfully on the role of utterances, voices, and sounds of all kinds in the Gothic; and it develops a strong argument about the centrality of vocal utterance to the development and establishment of American cultural self-conception." --David Punter, University of Bristol -- David Punter, University of Bristol * University of Wales Press *
"With its fascinating focus on ventriloquism and unintelligible speech, animal noises, and other types of sound, Jimmy Packhams Gothic Utterance issues a clarion call to attend to the neglected roles of voice and sound in American Gothic and the Gothic more broadly. Researchers into the Gothic will want to listen carefully to what it has to say!" --Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Central Michigan University -- Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Central Michigan University * University of Wales Press *
"The Gothic is always telling people something they dont want to hear: our consciences cant be killed; past sins, our own or our ancestors, will ultimately be revealed; and were generally not who we think we are. In Gothic Utterance: Voice, Speech, and Death in the American Gothic, Jimmy Packham demonstrates how frequently, in US fiction of the long nineteenth century, the Gothic literally speaks, through the voices of the dead, the undead, and the dying, as well as the traumatized, the outcast, the nonhuman, and the wilderness. . . . a fresh rereading of a wide swath of nineteenth-century American texts." * American Literary History *

Author Bio

Jimmy Packham is Lecturer in North American Literature at the University of Birmingham.