This book revives and revitalises the literary Gothic in the hands of contemporary women writers. It makes a scholarly, lively and convincing case that the Gothic makes horror respectable, and establishes contemporary women's Gothic fictions in and against traditional Gothic. The book provides new, engaging perspectives on established contemporary women Gothic writers, with a particular focus on Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood and Toni Morrison. It explores how the Gothic is malleable in their hands and is used to demythologise oppressions based on difference in gender and ethnicity. The study presents new Gothic work and new nuances, critiques of dangerous complacency and radical questionings of what is safe and conformist in works as diverse as Twilight (Stephenie Meyer) and A Girl Walks Home Alone (Ana Lily Amirpur), as well as by Anne Rice and Poppy Brite. It also introduces and critically explores postcolonial, vampire and neohistorical Gothic and women's ghost stories.
This book revives and revitalises the literary Gothic in the hands of contemporary women writers. It makes a scholarly, lively and convincing case that the Gothic makes horror respectable, and establishes contemporary women's Gothic fictions in and against traditional Gothic. The book provides new, engaging perspectives on established contemporary women Gothic writers, with a particular focus on Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood and Toni Morrison. It explores how the Gothic is malleable in their hands and is used to demythologise oppressions based on difference in gender and ethnicity. The study presents new Gothic work and new nuances, critiques of dangerous complacency and radical questionings of what is safe and conformist in works as diverse as Twilight (Stephenie Meyer) and A Girl Walks Home Alone (Ana Lily Amirpur), as well as by Anne Rice and Poppy Brite. It also introduces and critically explores postcolonial, vampire and neohistorical Gothic and women's ghost stories.
Über den Autor
Gina Wisker is an Associate Professor at the University of Bath, and Professor Emeritus of Higher Education & Contemporary Literature at the University of Brighton, UK. Gina has published twenty-six books and over one hundred and forty articles, including Key Concepts in Postcolonial Literature (2007); Horror Fiction: An Introduction (2005); Margaret Atwood, an Introduction to Critical Views of Her Fiction (2012) and Contemporary Women's Gothic Fiction (2016). Gina co-edits the online dark fantasy journal Dissections (2006-), Spokes poetry magazine (1990s-) and hosts 'words and worlds' readings for ICFA. Gina lives in Cambridge, has two sons and a feisty poodle.
Zusammenfassung
Establishes a canon for contemporary women's writing in the area of the Gothic by showing how it forms part of a much longer tradition of women's writing
Fills a gap in the market and promises to stand out as a definitive work
Accessible writing style and knowledge of the field will have a wide appeal for students, general readers and academics
Inhaltsverzeichnis
1.Introduction.- 2.Angela Carter: Living in Gothic Times.- 3.Margaret Atwood and Canadian Women's Gothic: Spite, Lies, Split Selves and Self Deception.- 4.Cultural Haunting: Toni Morrison and Tananarive Due.- 5.Postcolonial and Cultural Haunting Revenants: Letting the 'Right' Ones In.- 6.Testing the Fabric of Bluebeard's Castle: Postcolonial Reconfigurations, Demythologizing, Re-Mythologizing and Shape-shifting.- 7.Vampire Bites.- 8.Vampire Kisses.- 9.Ghostings and Hauntings: Splintering the Fabric of Domestic Gothic with Horror Houses, Stately Homes, Ghosts Behind Walls, Playroom Deaths, Women in Black, Little Strangers.- 10.Reviving, Revisiting and Mainstreaming Gothic
