The Cambridge Companion to The Modern Gothic

by Jerrold E. Hogle (Editor)

Several essays on how the gothic modes fit into concepts related to modernism

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

Paperback

Published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Katherine Addison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays offering an overview of "modern Gothic," which seems mostly to be code for "horror I want to have taken seriously." It seems to be a VERY LARGE umbrella and lots of things can keep out of the rain under it. Lots of vampires. The essays vary in quality from "interesting and useful" to "why are you telling me this?" It did remind me that I like reading literary criticism about horror, and I went through the bibliography with a finetoothed comb.

I would have liked more discussion of how the modern Gothic is linked---or not linked---to eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Gothic.

[Sina]

a little silly, especially in the later half ngl

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read some of the essays, the ones that were most relevant to my research subject. This is an edited collection, and it's in the nature of edited collections that there is a range of different writing styles, complexities, and focuses, but all of the essays I read were pretty clear and understandable.

Basically, this collection looks at various aspects of the Gothic as it has developed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including things like the advent of film, changes in gender and sexuality norms, late capitalism and challenges to capitalism, and the international spread of interest in the Gothic.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work provides an excellent survey of the innumerable forms the Gothic has taken as a mode during recent years. This collection principally focuses on literature, film, and television, though there is some gesture towards music and video games as well. I strongly recommend this to anyone wanting to understand how the Gothic manifests beyond the Victorian era novels that Gothic studies of literature hyperfocus on.

[Sloane Chambers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started as a source for an essay and ended up reading the whole thing. Neat stuff!