Theology, Horror and Fiction : A Reading of the Gothic Nineteenth Century

Surpassing scholarly discourse surrounding the emergent secularism of the 19th century, Theology, Horror and Fiction argues that the Victorian Gothic is a genre fascinated with the immaterial. Through close readings of popular Gothic novels across the 19th century – Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Dracula and The Picture of Dorian Gray, among others – Jonathan Greenaway demonstrates that to understand and read Gothic novels is to be drawn into the discourses of theology. Despite the differences in time, place and context that informed the writers of these stories, the Gothic novel is irreducibly fascinated with religious and theological ideas, and this angle has been often overlooked in broader scholarly investigations into the intersections between literature and religion. Combining historical theological awareness with interventions into contemporary theology, particularly around imaginative apologetics and theology and the arts, Theology, Horror and Fiction offers the beginnings of a modern theology of the Gothic. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Gothic and religion and theology The absence of the theological in Gothic criticism Outline of the argument: Chapter by chapter Chapter 1: Monstrosity and the problem of evil: A theologico-literary understanding of personhood in Frankenstein and Paradise Lost Chapter 2: ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’: Gothic revelation and monstrous theology in the Gothic’s Calvinist legacy Chapter 3: Gothic writing and political theology: Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre as theological texts Wuthering Heights, religious tensions, theology and grace Jane Eyre as social theology Chapter 4: ‘Through a glass darkly’: Reading the Victorian ghost story theologically Chapter 5: The limitations of materialism: Fin-de-siècle Gothic, sin and subjectivity and the insufficiency of degeneration Jekyll and Hyde – the law and the divided self: Fractured subjectivity and theology Oscar Wilde, decadence, sin and The Picture of Dorian Gray Dracula, iconography, sacramentality and purification Conclusion: Through the Gothic castle, back to theology Bibliography Index Longlisted for the 2022 International Gothic Association's Allan Lloyd Smith Prize Surpassing scholarly discourse surrounding the emergent secularism of the 19th century, Theology, Horror and Fiction argues that the Victorian Gothic is a genre fascinated with the immaterial. Through close readings of popular Gothic novels across the 19th century – Frankenstein , Wuthering Heights , Dracula and The Picture of Dorian Gray , among others – Jonathan Greenaway demonstrates that to understand and read Gothic novels is to be drawn into the discourses of theology. Despite the differences in time, place and context that informed the writers of these stories, the Gothic novel is irreducibly fascinated with religious and theological ideas, and this angle has been often overlooked in broader scholarly investigations into the intersections between literature and religion. Combining historical theological awareness with interventions into contemporary theology, particularly around imaginative apologetics and theology and the arts, Jonathan Greenaway offers the beginnings of a modern theology of the Gothic. "This theological reading of canonical texts of the 19th-century Gothic posits the religious themes of the Gothic as essential to understanding the form as a whole"-- Provided by publisher