The title offers a detailed yet accessible introduction to Twentieth Century Gothic fiction from Henry James to Sarah Waters. Among its primary themes are the role of the ghost in relation to childhood and cultural mourning, the relationship between Gothic Architecture and the 'landscapes' of dream and nightmare, the interface between Gothic and Horror modes of writing, the function of the monster in a secular age, and the influence of Gothic writing on contemporary representations of sexual dissidence. Accompanying the literary narratives in the book will be representative cinematic narratives which is vital in the consideration of twentieth century Gothic texts.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Gothic Attraction and/of the Counterfeit Gothic Culture and the Marketplace Chapter One - Gothic Pathologies: Haunted Children Child Murder and the Media Storm Fairy Stories and 'Burial Alive': A.S. Byatt and Graham Joyce Photographing Fairies: Framing the Dead Death and the Dolls' House: FairyTale: A True Story and M.R. James Chapter Two - Building Suspense: Architectural Gothic Haunted Geometries I: Kipling, 'Swept and Garnished' Haunted Geometries II: Eco, The Name of the Rose Suburban and Rural Monstrosity: Clive Barker and Iain Banks London Gothic: Elizabeth Bowen and Sarah Waters Designer Bathtubs and Drowning in Air: What Lies Beneath Chapter Three - Gothic Inhumanity Bestiality and the Gothic: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Leonora Carrington Vampires and Bloodfests: Leonora Carrington and Clive Barker Monster Birds - Du Maurier and Hitchcock 'Daddy's Home!': Jekyll Chapter Four - Queering the Gothic Jolly Queer - Henry James The Apparitional Lesbian: Sarah Waters AIDS/HIV and the Gothicising of Male Homosexuality: Patrick McGrath Chapter Five - Survey of Criticism Chapter Six - Conclusion: Thriller and Stranger

About the Author

Dr Lucie Armitt is Head of the English Department, Bangor University. She has published widely in her field for Palgrave/Macmillan, Routledge and Continuum.