American Gothic: New Interventions in a National Narrative - Hardcover

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9780877456223: American Gothic: New Interventions in a National Narrative

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0877456224 ISBN 13: 9780877456223

Publisher: University Of Iowa Press, 1998

In America as in Britain, the rise of the Gothic represented the other - the fearful shadows cast upon Enlightenment philosophies of common sense, democratic positivism, and optimistic futurity. Many critics have recognized the centrality of these shadows to American culture and self-identification. American Gothic, however, remaps the field by offering a series of revisionist essays associated with a common theme: the range and variety of Gothic manifestations in high and popular art from the roots of American culture to the present. Drawing widely on contemporary theory - particularly revisionist views of Freud such as those offered by Lacan and Kristeva - this volume ranges from the well-known Gothic horrors of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne to the popular fantasies of Stephen King and the postmodern visions of Kathy Acker. Special attention is paid to the issues of slavery and race in both black and white texts, including those by Ralph Ellison and William Faulkner. In the view of the editors and contributors, the Gothic is not so much a historical category as a mode of thought haunted by history, a part of suburban life and the lifeblood of films such as The Exorcist and Fatal Attraction.

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About the Author:

Robert Martin is professor emeritus of English at the Universit� de Montr�al. Eric Savoy is professor of English at the Universit� de Montr�al.

Review:

“These essays demonstrate that the Gothic is not the outmoded paradigm that critics such as Jameson declare but rather a vital, dynamic, protean lens through which to read American culture in the broadest sense; they also reflect contemporary critical interest in such issues as race, class, and gender. This volume will take its place beside Fleenor's The Female Gothic and Thompson's Gothic Imagination as an indispensable collection for students and critics alike.”—Anne Williams, author, Art of Darkness: A Poetics of Gothic

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