Goth: Undead Subculture

Politics, History, and Culture

by Lauren M.E. Goodlad (Editor), Joshua Gunn (Contributor), Kristen Schilt (Contributor)

Since it first emerged from Britain’s punk-rock scene in the late 1970s, goth subculture has haunted postmodern culture and society, reinventing itself inside and against the mainstream. Goth: Undead Subculture is the first collection of scholarly essays devoted to this enduring yet little examined cultural phenomenon. Twenty-three essays from various disciplines explore the music, cinema, television, fashion, literature, aesthetics, and fandoms associated with the subculture. They examine goth’s many dimensions—including its melancholy, androgyny, spirituality, and perversity—and take readers inside locations in Los Angeles, Austin, Leeds, London, Buffalo, New York City, and Sydney. A number of the contributors are or have been participants in the subculture, and several draw on their own experiences.

The volume’s editors provide a rich history of goth, describing its play of resistance and consumerism; its impact on class, race, and gender; and its distinctive features as an “undead†subculture in light of post-subculture studies and other critical approaches. The essays include an interview with the distinguished fashion historian Valerie Steele; analyses of novels by Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, and Nick Cave; discussions of goths on the Internet; and readings of iconic goth texts from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to James O’Barr’s graphic novel The Crow. Other essays focus on gothic music, including seminal precursors such as Joy Division and David Bowie, and goth-influenced performers such as the Cure, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson. Gothic sexuality is explored in multiple ways, the subjects ranging from the San Francisco queercore scene of the 1980s to the increasing influence of fetishism and fetish play. Together these essays demonstrate that while its participants are often middle-class suburbanites, goth blurs normalizing boundaries even as it appears as an everlasting shadow of late capitalism.

Contributors: Heather Arnet, Michael Bibby, Jessica Burstein, Angel M. Butts, Michael du Plessis, Jason Friedman, Nancy Gagnier, Ken Gelder, Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Joshua Gunn, Trevor Holmes, Paul Hodkinson, David Lenson, Robert Markley, Mark Nowak, Anna Powell, Kristen Schilt, Rebecca Schraffenberger, David Shumway, Carol Siegel, Catherine Spooner, Lauren Stasiak, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Goth, Gothic, Art, Theory, Pop Culture

456 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 21, 2007

Reviews

[Cory]

This collection of essays about goth subculture occasionally suffers from a common problem in academic writing about popular culture: too much Foucault, not enough fun. I think sometimes academics feel the need to make their writing style as dry as possible in order to lend a legitimacy to their subject. That said, I am enjoying the exploration of the subject and it is nice to cleanse the palate with a little Lacanian analysis every now and then.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“But it is also worth noting that the goth tendency to embrace gothic literature and art has made the subculture more dialectically engaged with the past than is typical of most youth cultures, providing yet another source of exceptional vitality. The antique and archaic are central to a gothic sensibility, just as death itself is typically perceived as a source of inspiration rather than a terminus.”

[Elie Carver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the essays were bad, some were fantastic, and some were just okay. But as a goth I feel like it would be rude of me to rate this low! Also the good essays were really good. Five stars.

[Richard B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled on this book while reading a couple of articles in the Guardian...anyway, I picked up a copy and for the most part, thoroughly enjoyed it. This is an academic book, a collection of liberal arts essays on a variety of subjects related to the goth subculture. They range from gender studies analyses, to explorations of certain bands influence on the goth scene, to looking at the work of certain 'goth' authors and the increased co-mingling of the goth and fetish scene in the US. The essays all well written, however some are very dry. Overall a good collection of work. This is not a definitive history but a collection of opinions and that's kind of what made it fun to read.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I lent this to a student who never returned it, so I'm putting it on the never-finished list.

[melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

eu nem sei como esbarrei no livro goth: undead subculture, organizado por michael bibby e lauren goodlad, mas tem sido uma viagem de leitura!

goth reúne vários ensaios sobre os mais diversos aspectos da subcultura gótica, de maquiagem a literatura, passando por música, cinema, moda, consumo, e questões de classe social, raça e gênero. eu estou lendo aos poucos e ainda não terminei, intercalo 2 ou 3 ensaios com algum outro livro de ficção (o último foi the dispossessed, da ursula k le guin). ⠀
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até agora, entre os que mais gostei, estão dois textos sobre cinema - um sobre o filme o corvo, de 1994, suas simbologias intencionais e a simbologia incidental que se criou a partir da morte de brandon lee. o outro, um ensaio magnífico, era sobre clube da luta, os temas homoafetivos do livro e do filme, e seu papel na criação de uma nova estética gótica mainstream nos anos 90.⠀
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a questão da homoafetividade, do queer, do homem hétero abraçando o feminino aparece em vários ensaios - o gótico é o espaço onde o masculino pode ser deixado de lado sem julgamento.⠀
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é nessa pegada do homem feminilizado que um dos ensaios discorre sobre a montação de david bowie nos anos 70 e como o glam abriu as portas para uma possibilidade de expressão estética andrógina essencial para os góticos.⠀
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além disso há muitos textos sobre estilo - vários deles sobre comunidades góticas nos anos 80, 90 em cidades minúsculas norte-americanas, cidades industriais meio desoladas, que em décadas passadas sofriam de altas taxas de desemprego e cuja população vivia, no geral, num estado de depressão. é nesses lugares que a subcultura se prolifera com mais sucesso.⠀
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o livro é ótimo pra entender melhor essa subcultura que se tornou tão estereotipada, e como ela se intersecciona de maneira complexa com questões sociais, econômicas e políticas.⠀
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sem contar que tem várias menções a vampiros na cultura pop, de bram stoker a anne rice a buffy, então na pior das hipóteses vampiros são sempre massa.⠀

[Corinne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was like a Iron Maiden song, long, good, but very long

[Bart Everson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do occasionally read books outside of my club selections. It took me a few months, chipping away at lunch time, but I finally finished Goth: Undead Subculture which the library purchased on my recommendation. Fascinating stuff. It’s the first and only collection of serious academic essays on the subject. I don’t usually read much academic writing, and this was heavy going in some places, but overall I think it’s pretty accessible. I think what I found most provocative is simply the idea of subcultures themselves as somehow resisting mainstream culture. I don’t know if subcultural studies is an organized field of study, but I think I’d like to learn more about it.

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compendium of academic essays covering a wide range of topics pertaining to the goth subculture. They range from dense sociological/anthropological analyses written from an observational POV, to treatises and manifestos by writers from inside the subculture. Not a fast read, but an intriguing one.

[michella · Rating 2 out of 5]

the main thing I enjoyed about this book was being reminded of some great music and movies I was into in my teen years. otherwise, it was long winded and hard for me to get through. The essays prattled on and on about goth lifestyles and started to blur into saying the same things again and again.

[Jenn Avery · Rating 2 out of 5]

For such a contemporaneous anthology I was surprised to find no mention of zombies.

[Angela(Angie) · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a subject that should be interesting, this book managed to be very dry and scholarly. Oh well!