21st-Century British Gothic : The Monstrous, Spectral, and Uncanny in Contemporary Fiction

In this innovative re-casting of the genre and its received canon, Emily Horton explores fictional investments in the Gothic within contemporary British literature, revealing how such concepts as the monstrous, spectral and uncanny work to illuminate the insecure, uneven and precarious experience of 21st-century life . Reading contemporary works of Gothic fiction by Helen Oyeyemi, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sarah Moss, Patrick McGrath and M.R. Carey alongside writers not previously grouped under this umbrella, including Brian Chikwava, Chloe Aridjis and Mohsin Hamid, Horton illuminates the way the Gothic has been engaged and reread by contemporary writers to address the cultural anxieties invoked living under neocolonial and neoliberal governance, including terrorism, migration, homelessness, racism, and climate change. Marshalling new modes of diasporic and cross-disciplinary critical theory concerned with the violent dimensions of contemporary life, this book sets the Gothic aesthetics in such works as White is for Witching, Double Vision, Never Let Me Go, The Wasted Vigil and Ghost Wall against a backdrop of key events in the 21st-century. Drawing connections between moments of anxiety, such as 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, ecological disaster, the refugee crisis, Brexit, the pandemic, and the Gothic, Horton demonstrates how British literature mediates transnational experiences of trauma and horror, while also addressing local and national insecurities and preoccupations. As a result, 21st-Century British Gothic can tests geographical, psychological, cultural, and aesthetic borders to expose an often spectralised experience of human and planetary vulnerability and speaks back against the brutality of global capitalism. Cover Halftitle page Title page Copyright page For Andrew, Solomon, and Xochitl – with love to my little monsters Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 21st-Century British Gothic: The Monstrous, Spectral, and Uncanny in Contemporary Fiction The Monstrous The Spectral The Uncanny Chapter Summaries Conclusion Notes 1 Post-9/11 Gothic: The Uncanny and Contemporary Trauma in Pat Barker’s Double Vision and Patrick McGrath’s Ghost Town Trauma and the Uncanny Traumatic Abjection and Libidinal Allure in Double Vision Multiple Histories of Uncanny Violence in Ghost Town Conclusion Notes 2 Decolonial Gothic: Tropical Terrors and Subterranean Ghosts in Tash Aw’s The Harmony Silk Factory and Nadeem Aslam’s The Wasted Vigil Tropical Gothic and Imperial Deception in The Harmony Silk Factory Subterranean Gothic and Afghanistan’s Ghosts in The Wasted Vigil Uncanny Returns and Reprisals Conclusion Notes 3 Gothic Inheritance: Imperial Witchcraft and Haunted Houses in Helen Oyeyemi’s White is for Witching and Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger Monstrous Whiteness in Oyeyemi’s White is for Witching Imperial Nostalgia and the Haunted Manor House in Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger Conclusion Notes 4 Digital Gothic: Digital Technology, Migration, and the Gothic in Hari Kunzru’s Transmission and Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West Banal Technology and the Gothic Corporate Business, Migrant Exploitation, and the Virus in Kunzru’s Transmission War, Portals, and Death in Hamid’s Exit West Conclusion Notes 5 Gothic Homelessness: Spectral Inhabitants and Uncanny Spaces in Ali Smith’s Hotel World, Trezza Azzopardi’s Remember Me, and Brian Chikwava’s Harare North The Unhomely and Homelessness in Gothic Writing Corporate Exclusion and Hotel Ghosts in Smith’s Hotel World Provincial Abuse and Mental Illness in Azzopardi’s Remember Me Migrancy, Homelessness, and a Haunting Spirit-World in Chikwava’s Harare North Conclusion Notes 6 The Gothic City: Uncanny Spaces, Historical Spectres, and Monstrous Urbanity in Louise Welsh’s The Cutting Room and Chloe Aridjis’ Book of Clouds Marketing a Gothic Glasgow in Louise Welsh’s The Cutting Room Gothic Global Berlin in Chloe Aridjis’ Book of Clouds Conclusion Notes 7 Brexit Gothic: Spectral Illusions and Affect Memories in Sarah Moss’ Ghost Wall and Niall Griffiths’ Broken Ghost Atavistic Histories and Skull-laden Borders in Sarah Moss’ Ghost Wall Ghostly Visions and Sublime Delusions in Niall Griffiths’ Broken Ghost Conclusion Notes 8 Pandemic Gothic: Childhood Terror and Monstrous Illness in the Fiction of Kazuo Ishiguro and M. R. Carey Viropolitics and Immunology Biomedicine as Violence in Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go Monster-Human Hybridity in Carey’s The Girl with All the Gift s and The Boy on the Bridge Frankenstein for the Pandemic: Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun Conclusion Notes 9 Wet Gothic: Ecofeminism and Horror in Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under the Sea, Daisy Johnson’s Fen, and Zoe Gilbert’s Folk Weird Transformation and the Deep in Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under the Sea Wetland Sacrifice and Superstition in Daisy Johnson’s Fen Island Folklore, Monstrous Women, and Watery Desire in Zoe Gilbert’s Folk Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index