Product Details
- Author: Fred Botting
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- Binding: Paperback
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- Dewey Decimal Number: 823.0872909
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- EAN: 9780415092197
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- ISBN: 0415092191
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- Label: Routledge
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- Language: English
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- Manufacturer: Routledge
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- Number of Items: 1
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- Number of Pages: 224
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- Product Group: Book
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- Publication Date: 1995-12-18
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- Publisher: Routledge
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- Studio: Routledge
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- Title: Gothic (The New Critical Idiom)
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Avg Customer Rating: 
Product Description: Gothic offers a lucid and accessible introduction to the Gothic genre, tracing the darkly terrific shapes and developments of a transgressive literary practice which has thrived for over two centuries. Fred Botting explores a number of key texts, their origins and writers, and discusses them in the context of their cultural and historical location, their critical reception and their influence.
Botting's concise introduction examines a remarkably wide and diverse range of authors and critics, varying from such artists as Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker to Angela Carter and David Lynch. Gothic focuses on the various styles and forms of the genre and analyzes the cultural significance of its prevalent figures--the ghosts, monsters, vampires, doubles and horrors that are its definitive features. Botting traces its history from its origins in the 18th century through its modernist and postmodernist representations, highlighting the ways Gothic figures have continued to shadow the progress of modernity, always displaying the underside of human values. He offers a broad overview of the themes, images and effects that not only define the genre, but also endure and re-appear endlessly in both "high" and "popular" literature and culture.
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Customer Reviews
Gives you a good understanding of Gothic Literature
This is an excellent starting point for those interested in getting a very broad but thorough understanding of Gothic literature. After reading this, you will feel confident in knowing the backbone of Gothic and what it entails.(I might also add that this is a very well-written book; the author is easy to read and very knowledgeable.)
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The Perfect Introduction
This is the perfect introduction to a study of both Gothic Literature and, by extension, 20th Century horror literature and cinema. The author walks a fine line between academic and accessible and keeps things moving along at a nice pace, covering 250 years in under 200 pages. The book is part of the Routledge "New Critical Idiom" series that sums up concepts from literary and critical theory in nice digestible servings. If you are an undergrad looking for a place to start your research or a non-academic who isn't afraid to get a little theoretical, I'd recommend this book highly.
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Why I like Fred Botting
This book is fabulous if you are looking for a historical survey of Gothic which does not lose itself in the labyrinth of feminist theory. However, I think Botting spreads himself a bit too thin in attempting to cover works like Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" in one sentence. I loved this book for bringing out the evolution of Gothic from early works to the present.
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