The Forest and the EcoGothic: The Deep Dark Woods in the Popular Imagination (Palgrave Gothic)

"This book offers the first full length study on the pervasive archetype of The Gothic Forest in Western culture. The idea of the forest as deep, dark, and dangerous has an extensive history and continues to resonate throughout contemporary popular culture. The Forest and the EcoGothic examines both why we fear the forest and how exactly these fears manifest in our stories. It draws on and furthers the nascent field of the ecoGothic, which seeks to explore the intersections between ecocriticism and Gothic studies. In the age of the Anthropocene, this work importantly interrogates our relationship to and understandings of the more-than-human world. This work introduces the trope of the Gothic forest, as well as important critical contexts for its discussion, and examines the three main ways in which this trope manifests: as a living, animated threat; as a traditional habitat for monsters; and as a dangerous site for human settlement. This book will appeal to students and scholars with interests in horror and the Gothic, ecohorror and the ecoGothic, environmentalism, ecocriticism, and popular culture more broadly. The accessibility of the subject of 'The Deep Dark Woods', coupled with increasingly mainstream interests in interactions between humanity and nature, means this work will also be of keen interest to the general public." -- Publisher's description 'This is a rigorously researched, wide-ranging and original study with international reach and significance. It makes a very important contribution to the Gothic field.' - Catherine Wynne, Reader in English, University of Hull 'I could not recommend this book more strongly. It is truly exceptional: thoroughly researched, effectively structured, convincingly argued, containing always-insightful readings of a dizzying array of film and fiction, and beautifully written. This is ground-breaking, important work.' - Dawn Keetley, Professor of English, Lehigh University This book offers the first full length study on the pervasive archetype of The Gothic Forest in Western culture. The idea of the forest as deep, dark, and dangerous has an extensive history and continues to resonate throughout contemporary popular culture. The Forest and the EcoGothic examines both why we fear the forest and how exactly these fears manifest in our stories. It draws on and furthers the nascent field of the ecoGothic, which seeks to explore the intersections between ecocriticism and Gothic studies. In the age of the Anthropocene, this work importantly interrogates our relationship to and understandings of the more-than-human world. This work introduces the trope of the Gothic forest, as well as important critical contexts for its discussion, and examines the three main ways in which this trope manifests: as a living, animated threat; as a traditional habitat for monsters; and as a dangerous site for human settlement. This book will appeal to students and scholars with interests in horror and the Gothic, ecohorror and the ecoGothic, environmentalism, ecocriticism, and popular culture more broadly. The accessibility of the subject of 'The Deep Dark Woods', coupled with increasingly mainstream interests in interactions between humanity and nature, means this work will also be of keen interest to the general public Acknowledgements Contents 1 Introduction: Into the Woods 2 Theorising the Forest: Approaching a Dark Ecology 2.1 The Echoing Green 2.2 The EcoGothic 2.3 ‘That Theatre of Superstition’: Mythologies and the Forest 2.4 Why We Fear the Forest (Seven Theses) 2.5 Conclusion 3 ‘What If It’s the Trees?’: The Living Forest 3.1 EcoGothic Roots: The Willows Were Against Us 3.2 When Nature Gets Nasty: The Threat of Attack and Arboreal Nightmares 3.3 Monstrous Mother Natures: The She-Devil in the Wilderness 3.4 Conclusion 4 Where the Wild Things Are: Monsters in the Forest 4.1 Here Be Monsters 4.2 Ambiguous Monsters 4.3 ‘She Was an Old Lady with the Fur of a Horse’: Witches in the Woods 4.4 ‘Forest Assassins’: Wolves and the Woods 4.5 Conclusion 5 ‘It Isn’t Right to Build so Close to the Woods’: Humans and the Forest 5.1 ‘We’re All Savages Within’: Backwoods Folk 5.2 The Death of Nature: Constructed Wilderness Paradise Lost: Innocence and The Village Human-Made Hells: The Hunger Games and The Cabin in the Woods 5.3 Conclusion 6 Conclusion: What Is ‘That Awful Secret of the Wood’? Bibliography Index