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.
- ISBN10 0877456224
- ISBN13 9780877456223
- Publish Date 1 June 1998
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 14 September 2009
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Iowa Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 264
- Language English