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Offering challenging insights into the development of the genre and its impact on contemporary culture, this wide-ranging and interdisciplinary work brings together a notable team of scholars writing on all aspects of the Gothic as it is currently taught and researched.
* Comprises over 200 newly-commissioned essays by an impressive international team of scholars, whose expertise extends beyond Gothic literature to film, music, drama, art, and architecture
* Based on the successful two-volume reference work, this comprehensive and wide-ranging research is now available in an accessible single-volume paperback edition
* Explores relevant authors, national traditions, critical developments, and notable texts that continue to define, shape, and inform this subject
* A-Z entries range from Angels and American Gothic, to Wilde and Witchcraft, creating the definitive reference guide to all aspects of this strange and wondrous genre
List of contents
Alphabetical List of Entries ix
General Editors xiii
Notes on Contributors xv
Introduction xxxv
The Gothic A-Z 1-757
Index 758
About the author
William Hughes is Professor of Gothic Studies at Bath Spa University and a past Joint President of the International Gothic Association. His publications include
Beyond Dracula (2000),
That Devil's Trick: Hypnotism and the Victorian Popular Imagination (2015) and
Ecogothic (2013), the latter co-edited with Andrew Smith. Hughes is also the founding editor of
Gothic Studies, the refereed journal of the International Gothic Association.
David Punter is Professor of English at the University of Bristol. His range and depth of critical work has been compared with that of Mario Praz and Edward Said. He has published some twenty books on Gothic, Romantic, modern and contemporary literature, and on psychoanalytic and other literary theory; he has also published four small volumes of poetry. He is generally recognized as the founder of modern criticism of the Gothic, and as an inspiration behind contemporary Goth culture.
Andrew Smith is Reader in Nineteenth Century English Literature at the University of Sheffield. He is a past Joint President of the International Gothic Association. Publications include
The Ghost Story 1840-1920: A Cultural History (2010),
Gothic Literature (2007, revised 2013),
Victorian Demons (2004), and
Gothic Radicalism (2000). He is a series editor of 'Gothic Literary Studies' and 'Gothic Authors: Critical Revisions' (with Ben Fisher) and of The Edinburgh Companions to the Gothic (with William Hughes).
Report
"The essays are well written and interesting, and many of them provide moments of real and pleasurable insight ... [It is] a testament to the breadth and depth of knowledge about its central subject among the more than 130 contributing writers, and also among the three editors, each of whom is a significant figure in the field of gothic studies ... A reference work that's firmly rooted in and actively devoted to expressing the current state of academic scholarship about its area." New York Journal of Books
"It includes over 200 commissioned essays from experts in gothic studies ...The entries are well written and vary in length from one to five thousand words. Recommended." Choice
"A substantial achievement ... An essential addition for humanities libraries, particularly those with researchers active in Gothic." Reference Reviews
