Neo-Gothic Narratives

Neo-Gothic Narratives

Illusory Allusions from the Past

Edited by Sarah E. Maier & Brenda Ayres

Anthem Studies in Gothic Literature

‘Neo-Gothic Narratives’ defines and theorises what mobilises the employment of the Gothic to speak to our own times.

PDF, 204 Pages

ISBN:9781785272189

March 2020

£25.00, $40.00

EPUB, 204 Pages

ISBN:9781785272196

March 2020

£25.00, $40.00

  • About This Book
  • Reviews
  • Author Information
  • Series
  • Table of Contents
  • Links
  • Podcasts

About This Book

Recent years have seen the strong development of Neo-Victorian studies, including its theorisation by such scholars as Cora Kaplan, Sally Shuttleworth, Ann Heilmann, Christian Gutleben, Marie-Louise Kohlke, Mark Llewellyn and others. It is a focus that has engaged literary critics from around the globe like Carmen Veronica Borbély (Romania), Susanne Gruß (Germany), Tiffany Gagliardi Trotman (Spain), Hitomi Nakatani (Japan), Agnieszka Matysiak (Poland), Max Duperray (France), Jeanne Ellis (South Africa) and Van Leavenworth (Sweden) to name just a few. [NP] ‘Neo-Gothic Narratives’ defines and theorizes what, exactly, qualifies as such a text, what mobilises the employment of the Gothic to speak to our own times, whether nostalgia plays a role and whether there is room for humour besides the sobriety and horror in these narratives across various media. What attracts us to the Gothic that makes us want to resurrect, reinvent, echo it? Why do we let the Gothic redefine us? Why do we let it haunt us? Does it speak to us through intertexuality, self-reflectivity, metafiction, immersion, affect? Are we reclaiming the history of women and other subalterns in the Gothic that had been denied in other forms of history? Are we revisiting the trauma of English colonisation and seeking national identity? Or are we simply tourists who enjoy cruising through the otherworld? The essays in this volume investigate both the readerly experience of Neo-Gothic narratives as well as their writerly pastiche.

Reviews

Maier, Ayres, and the other authors in Neo-Gothic Narratives have taken an important and calculated step forward in a novel approach to the Gothic. I imagine other readers interested in the Gothic and adjacent fields (especially those concerned with contemporary work) will similarly feel that this volume is a benefit to the field and in understanding how representations of the Gothic have evolved into our modern world and ways in which scholarship of the genre might progress — Wesley Scott McMaster

“Neo-Gothic Narratives offers an invaluable contribution to the field of Gothic studies, exploring our fascination with the Gothic past in contemporary literature, film and television. From vampires to zombies, dinosaurs to Dr Who, the essays in this collection are thrilling, chilling and consistently insightful.” —Helen Davies, Head of English, Newman University, UK

“The Neo-Gothic is a huge and expanding field; but when writing about it, it is difficult to get the tone right—are we talking of comedy, farce, satire or the deadly (and often scientifically) serious? In essay after essay, this book gets the tone right; there is scholarly and historical accuracy, of course, but there is also a play of intelligent wit that demonstrates that a great deal of Neo-Gothic is saying much more than may be apparent from the pipes, pulleys and strange animations of the steam-punk surface.” —David Punter, Professor of Poetry, University of Bristol, UK

“From vampires and zombies to Doctor Who and the Limehouse Golem, Neo-Gothic Narratives has something for everyone. The collection is clearly and persuasively written with illuminating analyses of complex theoretical terms and will certainly be of critical interest to a range of readers, including academics, students and general horror devotees.” —S. Brooke Cameron, Assistant Professor of English, Queen’s University, Canada

Author Information

Sarah E. Maier is professor of English and comparative literature at the University of New Brunswick. Canada, and was named University Teaching Scholar in 2006. She has been working on the Brontës for the bicentennials including for The Lost Manuscripts (2018). Maier’s past work includes Reinventing Marie Corelli for the Twenty-First Century (2019), co-edited with Brenda Ayres. Her other current interests include Sherlock Holmes, Neo-Victorian vampires, adaptation and Neo-Victorian young adult fiction.

Brenda Ayres is professor of English teaching a wide array of English online courses through Liberty University and Southern New Hampshire University, USA. She has edited several collections of essays including Reinventing Marie Corelli for the Twenty-First Century (2019) with Sarah E. Maier, Victorians and Their Animals: Beast on a Leash (2018) and Biographical Misrepresentations of British Women Writers: A Hall of Mirrors and the Long Nineteenth Century (2017). She is the author of Betwixt and Between: The Biographies of Mary Wollstonecraft (2017).

Series

Anthem Studies in Gothic Literature

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Introduction Neo- Gothicism: Persistent Haunting of the Past and Horrors Anew, Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier; Chapter One “Through a glass darkly”: The Gothic Trace, Brenda Ayres; Chapter Two Dark Descen(den)ts: Neo- Gothic Monstrosity and the Women of Frankenstein, Sarah E. Maier; Chapter Three Theorising Race, Slavery and the New Imperial Gothic in Neo- Victorian Returns to Wuthering Heights, Carol Margaret Davison; Chapter Four Toxic Neo- Gothic Masculinity: Mr. Hyde, Tyler Durden and Donald J. Trump as Angry White men, Martin Danahay; Chapter Five Shadows of the Vampire: Neo-Gothicism in Dracula, Ripper Street and What We Do in the Shadows, Jamil Mustafa; Chapter Six “Here we are, again! ”: Neo-Gothic Narratives of Textual Haunting, from Peter Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem to The Limehouse Golem, Ashleigh Prosser; Chapter Seven Spectral Females, Spectral Males: Coloniality and Gender in Neo- Gothic Australian novels, Kate Livett; Chapter Eight “We Are all humans”: Self- Aware Zombies and Neo- Gothic Posthumanism, Karen E. Macfarlane; Chapter Nine Neo- Gothic Dinosaurs and the Haunting of History, Jessica Gildersleeve and Nike Sulway; Chapter Ten Doctor Who ’s Shaken Faith in Science: Mistrusting Science from the Gothic to the Neo- Gothic, Geremy Carnes; Chapter Eleven The Devil’s in It: The Bible as Gothic, Brenda Ayres; Notes on Contributors; Index.

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