The Gothic and Death

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Description

The Gothic and death is the first published study devoted to the subject of the Gothic and death across the centuries. It investigates how the multifarious strands of the Gothic and the concepts of death, dying, mourning and memorialisation ('the Death Question') have intersected and been configured cross-culturally to diverse ends from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. Drawing on recent scholarship in such fields as Gothic Studies, film theory, Women's and Gender Studies and Thanatology Studies, this interdisciplinary collection of fifteen essays by international scholars combines an attention to socio-historical and cultural contexts with a rigorous close reading of works, both classic and lesser known. This area of enquiry is considered by way of such popular and uncanny figures as corpses, ghosts, zombies and vampires, and across various cultural and literary forms such as Graveyard Poetry, Romantic poetry and Victorian literature. -- .

Reviews

The Gothic and death is an interesting and varied collection that explores many compelling cultural themes through a range of seemingly disparate texts. In doing so, the work achieves a rare unity for an edited collection attempting perhaps the widest scope it could have, most students or scholars of the Gothic will find something of interest here. The topics of individual essays may not lend themselves immediately to the scholarship of others, but the ideas that run through the collection as a whole will likely speak far more broadly. The highest recommendation for The Gothic and death is that it lends itself to reading as a unified whole, and not merely as a collection of individual essays. -- .

Author Bio

Carol Margaret Davison is Professor and Head of Department of the English Language, Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor