Gothic and Gender: An Introduction

Donna Heiland

ISBN 10: 0631200495 / ISBN 13: 9780631200499

Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2004

About this Item

Gothic novels tell stories of patriarchal societies that thrive on the oppression or even outright sacrifice of women and others. This book offers a historically informed theoretical introduction to key gothic narratives from a feminist perspective. Num Pages: 232 pages, 0. BIC Classification: DSBH; DSK; FA; JFFK. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 232 x 160 x 23. Weight in Grams: 466. . 2004. 1st Edition. Hardcover. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780631200499

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Gothic and Gender: An Introduction
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0631200495
• ISBN 13: 9780631200499
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Gothic novels tell terrifying stories of patriarchal societies that thrive on the oppression or even outright sacrifice of women and others. Donna Heiland’s Gothic and Gender offers a historically informed theoretical introduction to key gothic narratives from a feminist perspective.

The book concentrates primarily on fiction from the 1760s through the 1840s, exploring the work of Horace Walpole, Clara Reeve, Sophia Lee, Matthew Lewis, Charlotte Dacre, Charles Maturin, Ann Radcliffe, William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, John Polidori, James Malcolm Rymer, Emily Brontė, Charlotte Brontė, Charlotte Smith, and Charles Brockden Brown. The final chapter looks at contemporary fiction and its relation to the gothic, including an exploration of Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin and Ann-Marie Macdonald’s Fall on Your Knees

A Coda provides an overview of scholarship on the gothic, showing how gothic gradually became a major focus for literary critics, and paying particular attention to the feminist reinvigoration of gothic studies that began in the 1970s and continues today.

Taken as a whole the book offers a stimulating survey of the representation of gender in the gothic, suitable for both students and readers of gothic literature.

About the Author

Donna Heiland is Director of Fellowship Programs at the American Council of Learned Societies and was Associate Professor of English at Vassar College.