The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction

by Jerrold E. Hogle (Editor)

Gothic as a form of fiction-making has played a major role in Western culture since the late eighteenth century. Here fourteen world-class experts on the Gothic provide thorough and revealing accounts of this haunting-to-horrifying type of fiction from the 1760s (the decade of The Castle of Otranto, the first so-called 'Gothic story') to the end of the twentieth century (an era haunted by filmed and computerized Gothic simulations). Along the way, these essays explore the connections of Gothic fictions to political and industrial revolutions, the realistic novel, the theater, Romantic and post-Romantic poetry, nationalism and racism from Europe to America, colonized and post-colonial populations, the rise of film and other visual technologies, the struggles between 'high' and 'popular' culture, changing psychological attitudes towards human identity, gender and sexuality, and the obscure lines between life and death, sanity and madness. The volume also includes a chronology and guides to further reading.

Genres: Gothic, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Reference, Theory, Academic, Horror

354 pages, ebook

First published August 28, 1998

Reviews

[Lily]

So far, here is what I think:
This book > Andrew Smith's Gothic Literature > Fred Botting's Gothic
[Yes, I seem to be heading towards a ridiculous spree of reading every single Gothic lit companion book ever written and ranking them arbitrarily. No, I didn't intend to do this.]

The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction is a dense book, with each chapter written by a different scholar. Some chapters, like the introductory chapter that serves to familiarize the reader with the complex history and evolution of Gothic literature, is rather procedural. On the other hand, there are chapters like the ones written by David Punter, Kelly Hurley and Fred Botting¹, which tend to delve into theoretical aspects of Gothic literature, from historical analysis to psychoanalysis and post-modern readings. The structure of the book easily permits the reader to choose whether they want to read the entire book or not, and it is possible to pick specific chapters to study without needing to read the rest. It is well-written, well-researched and I recommend it.

¹ The final chapter, written by Fred Botting, is my favorite in the book. It deals with post-modern incarnations of Gothic, and in my opinion, everything, from the prose and tone to the theory is leaps and bounds more fascinating than Botting's own companion book to Gothic literature.

[Anttoni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This companion elucidates on Gothic fiction from its beginnings to the present and its different forms in literature, films, theatre and video games - although the last medium is given only a cursory glance in the last chapter.
I had hoped for a more varying look on Gothic fiction, one that would do more than to look on the historical conditions Gothic fiction developed in or the social and societal problems Gothic fiction deals in. Moreover, I certainly was not prepared for the central role given to psychoanalysis in many of the Companions chapters. Surely there are other theories which can explain the fascination the Gothic has held and continues hold over imagination of writers and consumers alike - theories not so outdated as that of Freuds psychoanalysis, since Freud was the principal theorist of psychoanalysis used as an authority, although Julia Kristeva and Slavoj Zizek were also mentioned in passing.
As such, this Companion was on occasions rather infuriating, yet it also does a good job as a introduction to the corpus of Gothic fiction.

[Nicole Bergen · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much fun. I love gothic fiction and it was endlessly interesting to learn more about its origins and development. Personally, I would have liked an essay or two on contemporary gothic books (the contemporary section focused almost entirely on films with a little bit about video games). I’d also love a follow up to this, which was published in 2008, about all the gothic fiction that’s been published since then.

[Emannuel K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leitura para pesquisa.
Antologia de artigos sobre o gótico. Como a maior parte dos livros do tipo, tem muitos altos e baixos, mas é o tipo essencial para quem estuda o gênero.

[leni swagger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This chapter on zombies, however, was very shitty

[David Saliba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good standard reference for Gothic fiction.

[Heather Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the history of Gothic fiction. I would have preferred some sections on specific Gothic elements, however.

[Mr Macura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this companion fell short of my expectations. As others have already pointed out, most of the essays focus heavily on certain Freudian interpretation methods mixed with the authors' very much subjective thoughts, resulting in conclusions which range from improbable to simply ludicrous. It certainly feels like some of the authors are just trying very hard to apply their modern viewpoints to the contents of two or three centuries-old stories. Consider this passage from the introduction for example (p.12):

"The original Dracula, for instance, can disgorge blood from his breasts as much as he can penetrate flesh with his phallic teeth; can be attracted by Jonathan Harker (and vise versa) as much as Mina Murray [...]"

There are even statements which make me question whether their author has ever read the novels he/she is writing about. Take for instance this sentence about R. L. Stevenson's 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' (p. 199):

"The cultural figuration of homosexuality as "monstrous" is literalized by Hyde's hideousness and deformity, while Utterson's 'disgust, loathing and fear' in Hyde's presence is symptomatic of both his attraction toward and repudiation of this dangerous figure of desire."

I doubt that anyone who actually read the book would agree that Mr. Hyde is seen as an "attractive figure of desire" by other men. And then there is this passage about E.A. Poe's 'Berenice', which is just downright digusting (p. 184):

"Berenice's teeth constitute for Egaeus [the narrator of the story] a fetish object, for he 'felt that their possession could alone ever restore him to peace'; just as a fetish acquires meaning by a synecdochic logic, by which the part stands for the whole, the teeth here come to suggest the larger cultural specter of the devouring mother, the myth of women as vagina dentata, i.e a vulva lined with teeth."

What I was expecting from this book was an examination of what defines the Gothic genre, how it developed over time and how we can interpret its themes (within the margin of what their authors likely intended). I certainly did not expect a giant mess of weird inferences and questionable deductions from a team of professors teaching on well respected universities in the UK and the US. It certainly does not help that at the start of almost every essay each author makes a different statement of what defines "Gothic", the majority of which (as you can probably guess from the above passages) are very different from the obvious and most widespread notion that Gothic is a certain form of literary fiction most common in 19th century Europe with a focus on the supernatural/unexplainable in nature and its affect on human experience.
Still, I have to give the book some credit for the chapter on French and German Gothic as well as the one on the genesis of Gothic fiction. Those two were very well researched and very informative. This is also the reason for me giving the book two stars instead of one. However, everyone looking for a rational and strictly scientific examination of Gothic fiction should look elsewhere.

[Aljoša Harlamov · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uf, tole mi je vzelo kar nekaj živcev in življenja. Vseeno sem se nekako pretolkel do konca, samo da lahko zapišem tole. Zelo slabo. V akademski karieri sem se navadil, da tovrstnim zbornikom ni zaupati, četudi imajo žig ugledne univerze, a me še noben Cambridgev Companion ni (tako) povsem razočaral kot tale. Izšel je leta 2002, na vrhuncu obsedenosti s poststrukturalizmom, ampak vseeno sem verjel, da bodo avtorji opravili vsaj osnovno funkcijo takega "vademekuma", to je, da bodo definirali žanr tudi vsaj z osnovami literarnovednega metodološkega aparata. Kje pa. "Gotsko" je kot da definirano s psihoanalitičnimi termini (unheimlich, tuje, vračanje potlačenega itd.), ki niso nič drugega kot "motivi" in "teme" in kot da je to značilna poteza (samo) gotske literature. Pri tem se šele eno zadnjih poglavjih recimo vpraša: kako potem "gotsko" ločevati od "grozljivega". In odgovor je seveda nadaljnje citiranje Freuda, Lacana, pa še malo Foucaulta za digestiv. Katastrofa. Večina poglavij se tako ukvarja z zelo natančnim branjem posameznih del, ki jih (kako, zakaj?) uvrščajo v "gotsko literaturo", ne da bi bilo niti približno jasno, kaj od tega, kar analizirajo, je le izkazovanje avtorjevega poznavanja psihologije, psihoanalize in drugih sorodnih ved, kaj pa je v resnici žanrska značilnost tega žanra. Nekatere odlične tematske analize in interpretacije, ampak bralca to ne privede niti malo bližje temu, da bi razumel, kaj ta žanr je. Še največ se da, ampak bolj posledično, razbrati iz poglavja Terryja Halea, ki piše o nemških in francoskih vzorih in vzorcih angleške gotske literature, in Erica Savoyja, ki se vsaj trudi sintetizirati svoja spoznanja o ameriški gotski literaturi. Toda na vprašanje, kaj je gotska literatura, lahko natančneje odgovori samo literarna veda z metodami naratološke analize, ta knjiga pa ne premore niti L od literarne vede.

[Rebeca F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This quite an interesting book about gothic literature, a collection of essays from several academics and critics about different aspects of the gothic novel (and even cinema!) The first half is quite basic, more of the same if you've already read a lot of the subject, but the last essays were quite different and focused on pretty specific subjects that were new to me. I enjoyed especially those about American gothic, postcolonial gothic, why we need it and the last lovely chapter by Botting.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the chapters that seemed relevant to my research, but generally this is a pretty good book taking readers through a lot of the scholarly perspectives on different aspects of the Gothic. Like most Cambridge Companions, the book covers a wide variety or critical terrain, discussing various issues and concerns through different literary theories.

[Matthew Gurteen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical Cambridge Companion book. Some of the essays were really interesting, well-researched, and presented. Others turn a 300-page book into one that feels like 3000. If you are just starting studying the Gothic, though, this is a good book to read.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book, a compilation of various articles which have been written by scholars of Gothic literature.

[Tobias Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for anyone interested in the gothic trope.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic introduction to the genre.

[Rebeca Prats · Rating 4 out of 5]

para el TFG, estaba xulo

[Annji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this in anticipation of teaching the Gothic unit to my A2 class. I planned only to read the essays relevant to the class but wound up reading the whole thing. Very enjoyable though I didn't agree with everything said in the book. An easy read if you're looking for a way to scratch the surface of the amorphous Gothic genre.

[Rowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last essay on the postmodern gothic was by far the most interesting to me. The post-colonial caribbean gothic and contemporary gothic were fine, but seriously invested in psychoanalysis (which makes sense, but is really just not my cup of tea). Everything else is good primer material, but maybe not quite as innovative in terms of approach as I would have liked.

[Ashlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent resource for anyone studying Gothic fiction.

[InfiniteLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

used for research

[machinaheart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the individual essays in this one!
They are thorough and touch upon many ideas but do not get lost in details. I enjoyed the various essays in this book and can definitely recommend it!

[Ala'a · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magnificent, helped me a lot in my Graduation Project

[monmon · Rating 1 out of 5]

i’ll keep it simple, the first chapter uses freud’s “oedipal conflict/complex” as if that’s a helpful way to think about gothic fiction lmao

but really literary criticism is boring

[charlie ✧.* · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite a broad and interesting introduction to the gothic genre !