Welsh Gothic, the first study of its kind, introduces readers to the array of Welsh Gothic literature published from 1780 to the present day. Informed by postcolonial and psychoanalytic theory, it argues that many of the fears encoded in Welsh Gothic writing are specific to the history of Welsh people, telling us much about the changing ways in which Welsh people have historically seen themselves and been perceived by others. The first part of the book explores Welsh Gothic writing from its beginnings in the last decades of the eighteenth century to 1997. The second part focuses on figures specific to the Welsh Gothic genre who enter literature from folk lore and local superstition, such as the sin-eater, cŵn Annwn (hellhounds), dark druids and Welsh witches.
Contents
Prologue: ‘A Long Terror’
PART I: HAUNTED BY HISTORY
1. Cambria Gothica (1780s–1820s)
2. An Underworld of One’s Own (1830s–1900s).
3. Haunted Communities (1900s–1940s).
4. Land of the Living Dead (1940s–1997).
PART II: ‘THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE CELTIC TWILIGHT’
5. Witches, Druids and the Hounds of Annwn.
6. The Sin-eater
Epilogue: Post-devolution Gothic
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
- ISBN13 9780708326091
- Publish Date 15 May 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint University of Wales Press
- Format eBook
- Pages 288
- Language English