Recommended Books
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Under the Bed, Creeping
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From Puritan tracts and chapbooks to fairy tales and Victorian poems, from zombies and werewolves to ghosts and vampires, the gothic has become an important part of children's literature. This book explores how Gothicism is crucial in helping children progress through different stages of growth and development. It examines five famous texts--Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market, Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, Neil Gaiman's Coraline, three versions of Little Red Riding Hood, and J.M. Barrie's play and then novel Peter and Wendy--incorporating renowned psychologist Erik Erikson's landmark theories on psychosocial stages of development. By linking a particular stage to each of the aforementioned texts, it becomes clearer how anxiety and terror are just as important as happiness and wonder in fostering maturity, achieving a sense of independence and fulfilling one's self-identity. Gothic elements give shape to children's fears, which is precisely how children are able to defeat them, and through their interactions with the ghosts and goblins that inhabit fantasy worlds, children come to better understand their own world, as well as their own lives.
Call Number: PN1009.A1 H69 2014ISBN: 0786478438Publication Date: 2014-05-02 -
The Gothic World
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The Gothic Worldoffers an overview of this popular field whilst also extending critical debate in exciting new directions such as film, politics, fashion, architecture, fine art and cyberculture. Structured around the principles of time, space and practice, and including a detailed general introduction, the five sections look at: Gothic Histories Gothic Spaces Gothic Readers and Writers Gothic Spectacle Contemporary Impulses. The Gothic Worldseeks to account for the Gothic as a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional force, as a style, an aesthetic experience and a mode of cultural expression that traverses genres, forms, media, disciplines and national boundaries and creates, indeed, its own 'World'.
Call Number: PN3435 .G678 2014ISBN: 0415637449Publication Date: 2013-10-08 -
H. P. Lovecraft in Popular Culture
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Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born late in the 19th century, but it was not until after his death in 1937 that he became a worldwide icon of horror and supernatural fiction. Influenced largely by Lord Dunsany and Edgar Allan Poe, Lovecraft's stories are known for their unique assimilation of gothic themes into science fiction. Lovecraft's influence has stretched far beyond literary horror, as a number of his works have been adapted for feature films, television episodes, comic book tales and, in recent years, video games. This scholarly study highlights Lovecraft's profound impact on 20th century popular culture. Early chapters introduce his complete writings, providing an annotated bibliography of the author's horror and science fiction tales. The works are discussed in the context of the Cthulhu Mythos, an invented mythology centering on ancient and alien beings interacting with the terrestrial world. Later chapters provide a filmography of motion pictures that credit Lovecraft or are identifiably adapted from his works, as well as a discussion of the works that have been adapted for television, comic books, role-playing video games, and music. The book concludes with a close examination of the Lovecraft legacy, commenting on his specific social and metaphysical ideologies and placing the author in context among such notable literary personalities as Mary Shelley, Nathanial Hawthorne, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Call Number: PS3523.O833 Z865 2006ISBN: 9780786420919Publication Date: 2005-11-25 -
The Literary Haunted House
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The haunted house of American fiction is an iconic union of setting and theme with an enduring presence in popular culture that traces its lineage to the early English Gothic novels. Blurring the boundaries between past and present, the living and the dead, the haunted house--synonymous with the dark side of domesticity--challenges accepted notions of reality and wields a special power over the reader's imagination. Focusing on the work of H. P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson and Stephen King, this critical work offers a fresh perspective on one of the most popular motifs in American fiction. Case studies demonstrate how these authors have kept the past alive while highlighting the complexities of modern society, using their ghostly tales to celebrate and challenge 20th century American history and culture.
ISBN: 9780786465736Publication Date: 2015-01-12
Recommended eBooks
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At the Mountains of Madness
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This classic mind-shattering tale, which "ranks high among the horror stories of the English language," plunges into the darkness of the Cthulhu mythos (Time). In the uncharted wastes of Antarctica, an exploration party from Miskatonic University encounters a gory sight when they discover their advance team's camp has been destroyed and its members slaughtered. There is no evidence of what happened except a series of burial mounds, six of which contain dead specimens of unknown species. Eight similar tombs are empty, but they haven't been broken into--they've been broken out of. What began as a search for knowledge soon becomes a terrifying confrontation with the true nature of the world and the universe in all its stark blackness and unyielding oblivion. For mankind is not--and never has been--the bright light of creation. It's all a mistake, an insignificant stain of existence, forgotten by an unwitting and indifferent creator . . . until now. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
ISBN: 9781504045285Publication Date: 2017-05-02 -
Dissecting Stephen King
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In a thoughtful, well-informed study exploring fiction from throughout Stephen King's immense oeuvre, Heidi Strengell shows how this popular writer enriches his unique brand of horror by building on the traditions of his literary heritage. Tapping into the wellsprings of the gothic to reveal contemporary phobias, King invokes the abnormal and repressed sexuality of the vampire, the hubris of Frankenstein, the split identity of the werewolf, the domestic melodrama of the ghost tale. Drawing on myths and fairy tales, he creates characters who, like the heroic Roland the Gunslinger and the villainous Randall Flagg, may either reinforce or subvert the reader's childlike faith in society. And in the manner of the naturalist tradition, he reinforces a tension between the free will of the individual and the daunting hand of fate. Ultimately, Strengell shows how King shatters our illusions of safety and control: "King places his decent and basically good characters at the mercy of indifferent forces, survival depending on their moral strength and the responsibility they may take for their fellow men."
ISBN: 9780299209704Publication Date: 2005-07-08 -
The Emergence of Irish Gothic Fiction
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Provides a new account of the emergence of Irish gothic fiction in mid-eighteenth century This book provides a robustly theorised and thoroughly historicised account of the 'beginnings' of Irish gothic fiction, maps the theoretical terrain covered by other critics, and puts forward a new history of the emergence of the genre in Ireland. The main argument the book makes is that the Irish gothic should be read in the context of the split in Irish Anglican public opinion that opened in the 1750s, and seen as a fictional instrument of liberal Anglican opinion in a changing political landscape. By providing a fully historicized account of the beginnings of the genre in Ireland, the book also addresses the theoretical controversies that have bedevilled discussion of the Irish gothic in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The book gives ample space to the critical debate, and rigorously defends a reading of the Irish gothic as an Anglican, Patriot tradition. This reading demonstrates the connections between little-known Irish gothic fictions of the mid-eighteenth century (The Adventures of Miss Sophia Berkley and Longsword), and the Irish gothic tradition more generally, and also the gothic as a genre of global significance. Key Features * Examines gothic texts including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Charles Robert Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer, (Anon), The Adventures of Miss Sophia Berkley and Thomas Leland's Longsword * Provides a rigorous and robust theory of the Irish Gothic * Reads early Irish gothic fully into the political context of mid-eighteenth century Ireland
ISBN: 0748690808Publication Date: 2013-12-11 -
Future Folk Horror
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Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures analyzes folk horror by looking at its recent popularity in novels and films such as The Ritual (2011), The Witch (2015), and Candyman (2021). Countering traditional views of the genre as depictions of the monstrous, rural, and pagan past trying to consume the present, the contributors to this collection posit folk horror as being able to uniquely capture the anxieties of the twenty-first century, caused by an ongoing pandemic and the divisive populist politics that have arisen around it. Further, this book shows how, through its increasing intersections with other genres such as science fiction, the weird, and eco-criticism as seen in films and texts like The Zero Theorum (2013), The Witcher (2007-2021), and Annihilation (2018) as well as through its engagement with topics around climate change, racism, and identity politics, folk horror can point to other ways of being in the world and visions of possible futures.
ISBN: 9781666921236Publication Date: 2023-07-24 -
A New Companion to the Gothic
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<p>The thoroughly expanded and updated <i>New Companion to the Gothic</i>, provides a series of stimulating insights into Gothic writing, its history and genealogy. The addition of 12 new essays and a section on 'Global Gothic' reflects the direction Gothic criticism has taken over the last decade.</p> <ul> <li>Many of the original essays have been revised to reflect current debates</li> <li>Offers comprehensive coverage of criticism of the Gothic and of the various theoretical approaches it has inspired and spawned</li> <li>Features important and original essays by leading scholars in the field</li> <li>The editor is widely recognized as the founder of modern criticism of the Gothic</li> </ul>
ISBN: 1405198060Publication Date: 2012-02-20
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