The Gothic in Times of Crisis
By (Author) John Whatley
Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press
11th March 2026
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers
Horror, ghost stories and supernatural fiction
Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900
Hardback
312
Width 138mm, Height 216mm
The Gothic in times of crisis reflects contemporary society, showing how the Gothic modes continually resets its own forms to encompass each new reality, each new apocalypse, each new plague or crisis. This collection expands oncurrent scholarship to show how the Gothic challenges our understanding of both older and recent crises and, in turn, disturbs all genre complacencies to expose and confront the problems and contradictions in what our world has been, has become, or is in danger of becoming. This collection explores Gothic's current relevance to the contestations of ideas and the underlying and visible conflicts it dramatizes across a wide range of media. In various ways, it reveals what happens to Gothic modes now they confront the increasingly Gothic realities of our times, sometimesby recalling earlier crises and ideological contestations leading up to them.
John Whatley is a retired lecturer from the Simon Fraser University Department of English and a retired associate member of the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University. He is currently managing editor of Simon Fraser University Publications.