Jacqueline Howard
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198119920
- eISBN:
- 9780191671258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198119920.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show the relevance of Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of dialogism in the novel for theorizing the Gothic, and to reconstruct the intertextual ...
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This chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show the relevance of Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of dialogism in the novel for theorizing the Gothic, and to reconstruct the intertextual relations of selected works of Gothic fiction written between 1760 and 1820. The object has been to situate Gothic texts historically, socially, and culturally by examining how they construct and define themselves in relation to prior discourses, both literary and non-literary. In drawing attention to the plural dimensions of reading in relation to the Gothic, it also indicates its historically changing generic structure as it has continued to fascinate readers with its peculiar order of being, one which, as John Frow puts it, ‘emphasizes the subjective apprehension of a threatening environment’. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show the relevance of Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of dialogism in the novel for theorizing the Gothic, and to reconstruct the intertextual relations of selected works of Gothic fiction written between 1760 and 1820. The object has been to situate Gothic texts historically, socially, and culturally by examining how they construct and define themselves in relation to prior discourses, both literary and non-literary. In drawing attention to the plural dimensions of reading in relation to the Gothic, it also indicates its historically changing generic structure as it has continued to fascinate readers with its peculiar order of being, one which, as John Frow puts it, ‘emphasizes the subjective apprehension of a threatening environment’. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Jean-Jacques Lecercle
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638000
- eISBN:
- 9780748652648
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638000.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter suggests that the French literary genre called le fantastique or gothic may well lend itself to the type of strong reading which Alain Badiou and Gilles Deleuze practised, explaining ...
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This chapter suggests that the French literary genre called le fantastique or gothic may well lend itself to the type of strong reading which Alain Badiou and Gilles Deleuze practised, explaining that this type of literature was blissfully ignored by these two philosophers. It argues that the gothic text may be an excellent candidate for the staging or capture of a Badiou-type event, and that it may also be the site of processes of becoming, of deterritorialisation and of minorisation which will be aptly accounted for in Deleuzian terms.Less
This chapter suggests that the French literary genre called le fantastique or gothic may well lend itself to the type of strong reading which Alain Badiou and Gilles Deleuze practised, explaining that this type of literature was blissfully ignored by these two philosophers. It argues that the gothic text may be an excellent candidate for the staging or capture of a Badiou-type event, and that it may also be the site of processes of becoming, of deterritorialisation and of minorisation which will be aptly accounted for in Deleuzian terms.
James Rose
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906733643
- eISBN:
- 9781800342064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906733643.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter studies the concept of ‘the uncanny’ in relation to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Throughout The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, elements of the Gothic have made themselves clearly ...
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This chapter studies the concept of ‘the uncanny’ in relation to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Throughout The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, elements of the Gothic have made themselves clearly manifest: the haunted house, the monster, and sustained persecution. These tropes have provided contexts with which to address the film's content and have exposed potential readings of the text which, in the final analysis, concentrically draw themselves towards a greater concept — the uncanny. The concept and occurrences of the uncanny not only forms the background to the Gothic genre but functions as the very modus operandi of many Gothic texts. With such a concept dominating the Gothic, its application to The Texas Chain Saw can be used to not only consolidate the proposition that the film is itself a Gothic text but, more, to draw the prior readings together and unify them in an effort to formalise a clear reading of Tobe Hooper's film.Less
This chapter studies the concept of ‘the uncanny’ in relation to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Throughout The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, elements of the Gothic have made themselves clearly manifest: the haunted house, the monster, and sustained persecution. These tropes have provided contexts with which to address the film's content and have exposed potential readings of the text which, in the final analysis, concentrically draw themselves towards a greater concept — the uncanny. The concept and occurrences of the uncanny not only forms the background to the Gothic genre but functions as the very modus operandi of many Gothic texts. With such a concept dominating the Gothic, its application to The Texas Chain Saw can be used to not only consolidate the proposition that the film is itself a Gothic text but, more, to draw the prior readings together and unify them in an effort to formalise a clear reading of Tobe Hooper's film.
