The Gothic and Theory: An Edinburgh Companion (Edinburgh Companions to the Gothic)

Each essay in this collection, after the introduction, focuses on a particular kind of theory-Gothic relationship, every one of which has a history and each of which is still being explored in enactments of the Gothic and of theory today. Rather than recounting how different schools of theory and criticism have viewed the Gothic, these chapters argue how Gothic and theory have defined and affected - and still define and affect -- each other in particular aesthetic, intellectual, and cultural realms. In each case, the Gothic is revealed as containing and inciting the very theoretical schemes and assumptions that have purported to explain it from particular perspectives. Hence the Gothic, as it has progressed across Western and world history, emerges as both a producer of what each school of theory promulgates and an active Gothic-izer of each scheme, thereby advancing the development of every theoretical enterprise in Gothic works. This approach allows each essayist to reflect from the perspective of 2018-19 on how a particular realm of theory has opened up forms of the Gothic to our understandings and to the wider possibilities of Gothic texts (broadly defined) as performers of "cultural work." But it equally enlists each of them to explain how those very openings are incipient in forms of the Gothic and how the Gothic can also question existing theoretical claims, challenge them, and reorient them. Contents Acknowledgements 1. The Gothic–Theory Conversation: An Introduction • Jerrold E. Hogle Part I: The Gothic, Theory and History 2. History/Genealogy/Gothic: Godwin, Scott andtheir Progeny • Robert Miles 3. The Gothic in and as Race Theory • Maisha Wester 4. Postcolonial Gothic in and as Theory • Alison Rudd Part II: The Gothic of Psychoanalysis and its Progeny 5. The Gothic Body before and after Freud • Steven Bruhm 6. Abjection as Gothic and the Gothic as Abjection • Jerrold E. Hogle Part III: Feminism, Gender Theory, Sexuality and the Gothic 7. Unsettling Feminism: The Savagery of Gothic • Catherine Spooner 8. Gothic Fiction and Queer Theory • George E. Haggerty Part IV: Theorising the Gothic in Modern Media 9. The Gothic at the Heart of Film and Film Theory • Elisabeth Bronfen 10. Techno-Terrors and the Emergence of Cyber-Gothic • Anya Heise-von der Lippe Part V: The Gothic before and after Post-structuralism 11. The Gothic as a Theory of Symbolic Exchange • David Collings 12. Incorporations: The Gothic and Deconstruction • Tilottama Rajan 13. Dark Materialism: Gothic Objects, Commodities and Things • Fred Botting 14. Thinking the Thing: The Outer Reaches of Knowledge in Lovecraft and Deleuze • Anna Powell 15. Gothic and the Question of Ethics: Otherness, Alterity, Violence • Dale Townshend Part VI: The Gothic–Theory Relationship in Retrospectand Prospect 16. On the Threshold of Gothic: A Reflection • David Punter Notes on Contributors Index Provides a scholarly account of the striking interplay between the Gothic and theory over two-and-a-half centuries This collection provides a thorough representation of the early and ongoing conversation between Gothic and theory philosophical, aesthetic, psychological and cultural both in the many modes of Gothic and in many of the realms of theory now current in the modern world. Each essay focuses on a particular kind of theoryGothic relationship, every one of which has a history and each of which is still being explored in enactments of the Gothic and of theory today. Key Features This Collection Provides A Thorough Representation Of The Early And Ongoing Conversation Between Gothic And Theory - Philosophical, Aesthetic, Psychological And Cultural Both In The Many Modes Of Gothic And In Many Of The Realms Of Theory Now Current In The Modern World. Each Essay Focuses On A Particular Kind Of Theory - Gothic Relationship, Every One Of Which Has A History And Each Of Which Is Still Being Explored In Enactments Of The Gothic And Of Theory Today.