Queering Gothic in the Romantic Age: The Penetrating Eye

by Max Fincher

This book argues that Gothic writing of the Romantic period is queer. Using a variety of texts, it argues that contemporary queer theory can help us to read the obliqueness and invisibility of same-sex desire in a culture of vigilance. Fincher shows how the Gothic's ambivalent gender politics destabilize heteronormative narratives.

Genres: Nonfiction

211 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2007

About the author

After writing my PhD at King’s College London, I worked in the Civil Service in London, and then for two healthcare policy research organisations, the King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust, helping to support their directors of research. In between these jobs, I published my PhD as Queering Gothic Writing, and worked as a temporary lecturer in the English department at Royal Holloway, teaching the eighteenth-century novel, 'Tristram Shandy' and its influence on English literature. I have also worked as a private tutor, and as a career for my father who suffers from vascular dementia.

I have been an occasional reviewer for 'The Times Literary Supplement' since 2005. In addition, I have also contributed reviews of books and films to other publications including 'Chroma: A Queer Literary Journal', 'Scope', 'Victorian Review' and to the international academic journal Gothic Studies (MUP). I also blog for the University of Stirling's 'Gothic Imagination' website http://www.gothic.stir.ac.uk/