The Female Gothic: New Directions

by Diana Wallace (Editor), Andrew Smith (Editor)

This rich and varied collection of essays makes a timely contribution to critical debates about the Female Gothic, a popular but contested area of literary studies. The contributors revisit key Gothic themes - gender, race, the body, monstrosity, metaphor, motherhood and nationality - to open up new critical directions.

Genres: Gothic, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Grad School

232 pages, Hardcover

First published November 12, 2009

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does the female gothic exist?

More than just texts written by women in the gothic mode, the Female Gothic encompasses narratives in which the female heroines are entrapped in the domestic sphere, have their patrimony taken over, are threatened with rape and forced marriage, for example.

The essays on this book explore the depiction of women's experience and women's identity in works of fiction that use the tropes of the gothic (haunted house, absent or monstrous mothers, the spectrality of women, women buried alive) to present a feminist critique of a patriarchal society and question their own identity within that social order.

This study shows that the gothic is still alive and that canonical texts still have a lot to offer. The gothic mode can be further explored in terms of national identity, sexuality, language, race, and history.

For more on the topic read:
Was there ever a female gothic? - Ellen Ledoux

[Daniela Solaroli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un buon libro, che consiglio.
Racconti horror scritti durante il regno della regina Vittoria da grandi donne e magnifiche romanziere che, per poter pubblicare, dovevano nascondersi dietro pseudonimi maschili.

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays is well-organised and offers a vaste perspective of the topic, analzying both conventional and non-conventional writers belonging to different historical periods and spaces.