The Gothic

Punter, David / Byron, Glennis

Blackwell Guides to Literature

1. Edition December 2003
336 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd

ISBN: 978-0-631-22062-6

John Wiley & Sons

Further versions

This guide provides an overview of the most significant issues and
debates in Gothic studies.

* * Provides an overview of the most significant issues and debates
in Gothic studies.

* Explains the origins and development of the term Gothic.

* Explores the evolution of the Gothic in both literary and
non-literary forms, including art, architecture and film.

* Features authoritative readings of key works, ranging from
Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto to Bret Easton
Ellis's American Psycho.

* Considers recurrent concerns of the Gothic such as persecution
and paranoia, key motifs such as the haunted castle, and figures
such as the vampire and the monster.

* Includes a chronology of key Gothic texts, including fiction
and film from the 1760s to the present day, and a comprehensive
bibliography.

How to Use This Book.

2. Chronology.

3. Introduction.

4. Backgrounds and Contexts.

5. Writers of Gothic.

6. Key Works.

7. Themes and Topics.

8. Guide to Further Reading.

Index

"The overall result is wonderfully informative and suggestive for the beginning student, while offering some striking additional insights spread across the book for advanced students of Gothic who have yet to consider such contexts for it as postcolonialism, 'goth' subcultures and 'Hallucination and the Narcotic'." Gothic Studies

David Punter is Professor of English at the University of Bristol. He has previously taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and at Fudan University in Shanghai, among other institutions. His recent publications include Postcolonial Imaginings (2000), Writing the Passions (2000), Gothic Pathologies (1998), and The Literature of Terror (2 vols., 1996). He has also published four volumes of poetry.Glennis Byron is Reader in English Studies at the University of Stirling. She has also taught at the University of Alberta in Canada. Her previous publications include Dramatic Monologue (2003), Letitia Landon: The Woman Behind L.E.L (1995), and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the Poetry of Love (1989).

D. Punter, University of Bristol; G. Byron, University of Stirling