Religious Horror and the Ecogothic (Ecocritical Theory and Practice)

Religious Horror and the Ecogothic explores the intersections of Anglophone Christianity and the Ecogothic, a subgenre that explores the ecocritical in Gothic literature, film, and media. Acknowledging the impact of Christian ideologies upon interpretations of human relationships with the environment, the Ecogothic in turn interrogates spiritual identity and humanity’s darker impulses in relation to ecological systems. Through a survey of Ecogothic texts from the eighteenth century to the present day, this book illuminates the ways in which a Christianized understanding of hierarchy, dominion, fear, and sublimity shapes reactions to the environment and conceptions of humanity’s place therein. It interrogates the discourses which inform environmental policy, as well as definitions of the “human” in a rapidly changing world.

Kathleen Hudson is adjunct professor at the United States Naval Academy and Anne Arundel Community College.

Mary Going is British Academy postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sheffield.

Kaja Franck is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. She is the co-organiser of the 'Open Graves, Open Minds' research project, which is dedicated to supernatural creatures in popular culture.

Jonathan Greenaway is Researcher in Theology and Horror at the University of Chester, UK. His work has appeared in the Guardian and the New York Times and he tweets @thelitcritguy.

Madeline Potter is Early Career Teaching and Research Fellow in the Long 19th Century (Romanticism to Victorianism) at University of Edinburgh.