The Literature of Terror: Vol. 2

by David Punter

This two-volume set (see Volume 1: The Gothic Tradition) by David Punter is more than simply a history of the gothic form in American and British literature. It's an ambitious attempt to redefine the word gothic so that it encompasses most of fantastic fiction and film for the past 200 years under a unifying theme: a preoccupation with fear. This is, of course, an extremely broad definition, so don't be surprised if you find yourself taking the theoretical sections of the book with a grain of salt. Also, since the book was first written in the late 1970s, much of the discussion of language and symbol relies on rather outdated Marxist and Freudian theories. Punter apologizes for the latter in the preface to this (the second) edition, saying that rather than doing a massive revision, he decided to "leave it largely as an 'unrestored' period piece, with its own characteristic style, silhouette, and mood"--while adding additional material on the contemporary gothic.

Those caveats aside, however, The Literature of Terror is mostly successful as a comprehensive study. And it's an enormously useful reference for anyone with a more than passing interest in horror literature. Plus it benefits from being the work of a single author: Punter is an extremely well-read scholar who perceives fascinating connections between a wide variety of books and films, and he explains his ideas lucidly enough that you can judge for yourself how far you agree with them.

Some of the high points are Punter's overview of what the word gothic means in other fields (such as architecture); his summaries of the roles of graveyard poetry, the sentimental novel, and the theory of the sublime in the development of the gothic concept; and his inclusion (as gothic and even horror writers) of such notables as Isak Dinesen, William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, J.G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Thomas Hawkes, and Robert Coover. If that's not enough to tempt you, the footnotes and bibliography alone offer ample yet well-chosen pointers to authors whose entertaining fiction you may not have discovered yet.

Best of all, The Literature of Terror is written in English--that is, not loaded down with annoying words such as transgressive and trope that mar so much of postmodern criticism. You can browse for information about specific authors or dip into it at your leisure without losing the thread. And for an academic work, it's darn fun to read. (Be sure to get both Volume 1 and Volume 2.) --Fiona Webster

Genres: Nonfiction, Gothic

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 2014

Reviews

[xenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a perfectly serviceable exploration of Gothic and weird fiction during the fin-de-siècle and beyond. I found most of its arguments a bit light. Nice through line articulating how later Gothic fiction is united in depicting anxieties over the fall of the British Empire. Shifts in the discourse from foreign threats and the safety of homeland/civilisation (Conan Doyle), to British colonialism itself as foreign, barbaric, and degenerate (H. G. Wells - love this sadboy), to the impossibility of home/meaning altogether in a world whose foreign threats cannot be resisted (Ambrose Bierce, H. P. Lovecraft). This is me summarising; the book is a bit more scattered. Haven't yet read the chapter on Mervyn Peake, William Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, and Angela Carter.

For more in-depth analyses of Gothic and weird fiction, I'd recommend:

Limits of Horror: Technology, Bodies, Gothic
This book explores how the Gothic is informed by different modes of production, from feudalism to capitalism. Interesting take on how industrialisation and automation connect to the terror of the uncanny and repetition.

The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the Fin de Siècle
Explores the theoretical underpinnings of the Gothic in entropy, evolution, and criminality. Fantastic chapters on degeneration theory and cosmic pessimism. Articulates the concept of the abhuman through the disintegrating bodies of H. G. Wells, William Hope Hodgson, and Arthur Machen.

Weird Fiction in Britain 1880–1939
Probably the most historically rigorous of the books mentioned here. Explores the development of the term "weird" as well as the influence of the Decadent movement on weird fiction. Does some fun inversions of Edward Said's Orientalism, by positing that a number of the British authors Said names wrote stories that side with the Orient, not with empire. Yes it was a grotesque, racist caricature, but one yearned for as more lively than the lethargic (i.e. Decadent) centre.

Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction
There are some fantastic chapters near the start of this book that ground science fiction in the Gothic. Sublime encounters, social crises, voyages into chthonic depths. Sees science and Gothic fiction as reactions to "The evolutionary revolution and the Industrial Revolution." Chapters on Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and H. G. Wells.

The Weird Tale: Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, Ambrose Bierce, H.P. Lovecraft
Develops and circles round Lovecraft's definition of the weird tale as epistemological dread, a kind of extreme sublime that encounters indifference at nonhuman scales of temporality and spatiality. Deep time and extra-dimensional space.

A Century of Weird Fiction, 1832–1937: Disgust, Metaphysics, and the Aesthetics of Cosmic Horror
Just some fun analyses of Poe, Machen, Hodgson, etc., as united in their depictions of disintegrating bodies. Less history, more philosophy, especially that of New Materialism. Draws on Carolyn Korsmeyer's sublate, Quentin Meillassoux's non-correlationism, Karen Barad's intra-action, Friedrich Schelling's Absolute, Arthur Schopenhauer's sublime, and more.