Christoph Grunenberg
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474401616
- eISBN:
- 9781474418553
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474401616.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This essay surveys the gothic in American art from its earliest influence by 18th- and 19th-century British culture to gothic boom in late 20th- and early 21st-century culture. The gothic links not ...
More
This essay surveys the gothic in American art from its earliest influence by 18th- and 19th-century British culture to gothic boom in late 20th- and early 21st-century culture. The gothic links not only to goth subculture of the 1980s but also to multiple expressions in film, music, fashion, design and architecture. This cross-pollination between art, literature and more ephemeral forms of gothic popular culture is a a typical product of postmodernism. American gothic has become a ubiquitous signifier for dark moods in times of change and crisis as expressed in a contemporary mordant mindset, the liberal indulgence in horror, macabre images and flirting with disaster.Less
This essay surveys the gothic in American art from its earliest influence by 18th- and 19th-century British culture to gothic boom in late 20th- and early 21st-century culture. The gothic links not only to goth subculture of the 1980s but also to multiple expressions in film, music, fashion, design and architecture. This cross-pollination between art, literature and more ephemeral forms of gothic popular culture is a a typical product of postmodernism. American gothic has become a ubiquitous signifier for dark moods in times of change and crisis as expressed in a contemporary mordant mindset, the liberal indulgence in horror, macabre images and flirting with disaster.
Joel Faflak
Jason Haslam (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474401616
- eISBN:
- 9781474418553
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474401616.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This Companion surveys the traditions and conventions of the dark side of American culture - its repressed memories, its anxieties and panics, its fears and horrors, its obsessions and paranoias. ...
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This Companion surveys the traditions and conventions of the dark side of American culture - its repressed memories, its anxieties and panics, its fears and horrors, its obsessions and paranoias. Featuring new critical essays by established and emerging academics from a range of national backgrounds, this collection offers new discussions and analyses of canonical and lesser-known literary and other works. Its scope ranges from the earliest manifestations of American Gothic traditions in frontier narratives and colonial myths, to its recent responses to contemporary global events. Moving from analyses of eighteenth-century literature to twenty-first century video games, and touching upon visual art, film, and television, serial killers, monsters, education and cityscapes, this Companion aims to demonstrate the centrality of the gothic to American culture writ large through four key sections: Gothic Histories, Gothic Identities; Gothic Genres, Gothic Sites; Gothic Media; and American Creatures.Less
This Companion surveys the traditions and conventions of the dark side of American culture - its repressed memories, its anxieties and panics, its fears and horrors, its obsessions and paranoias. Featuring new critical essays by established and emerging academics from a range of national backgrounds, this collection offers new discussions and analyses of canonical and lesser-known literary and other works. Its scope ranges from the earliest manifestations of American Gothic traditions in frontier narratives and colonial myths, to its recent responses to contemporary global events. Moving from analyses of eighteenth-century literature to twenty-first century video games, and touching upon visual art, film, and television, serial killers, monsters, education and cityscapes, this Companion aims to demonstrate the centrality of the gothic to American culture writ large through four key sections: Gothic Histories, Gothic Identities; Gothic Genres, Gothic Sites; Gothic Media; and American Creatures.
