Gothic Metaphysics: From Alchemy to the Anthropocene

(Hardback)

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Rethinks Gothic literature in the time of the Anthropocene.

Gothic Metaphysics is a radical departure from Freudian-centered criticism of Gothic literature. Since its inception in 1764, the Gothic has held space for a worldview that acknowledged a living, even sentient, cosmos. Although it was later deemed uncanny and anachronistic by Freud, Jodey Castricano argues that the Gothic can still offer us an alternative vision of reality. The book explores the ways in which Gothic literature can help us bring about a paradigm shift in our relation to the planet in the time of the Anthropocene. Taking the influence of the Middle Ages and psychoanalytic thought into account, Gothic Metaphysics is a multivalent exploration of how the Gothic has sustained the viewpoint of a sentient world in spite of modern rejection.

Author Bio

Jodey Castricano is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. She teaches English and Cultural Studies, and is a Research Fellow with the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. Her specialisations include Gothic Studies, posthumanist philosophy, and critical animal studies with extended work in ecocriticsm, ecofeminism and ecotheory.