Limits of horror: Technology, bodies, Gothic

by Fred Botting

Horror isn’t what it used to be. Nor are its Gothic avatars.

The meaning of monsters, vampires and ghosts has changed significantly over the last two hundred years, as have the mechanisms (from fiction to fantasmagoria, film and video games) through which they are produced and consumed. Limits of horror, moving from gothic to cybergothic, through technological modernity and across a range of literary, cinematic and popular cultural texts, critically examines these changes and the questions they pose for understanding contemporary culture and subjectivity.

Re-examining key concepts such as the uncanny, the sublime, terror, shock and abjection in terms of their bodily and technological implications, this book advances current critical and theoretical debates on Gothic horror to propose a new theory of cultural production based on an extensive discussion of Freud’s idea of the death drive.

Limits of horror will appeal to students and academics in Literature, Film, Media and Cultural Studies and Cultural Theory.

Genres: Horror, Nonfiction, Gothic, Film, Literary Criticism, Theory, Psychoanalysis

240 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2008

Reviews

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The [cynical] assessment of gothic and literature of horror in modern and post-modern age, tinted by the invasion of technology and dissolution of everything into already-made simulations, empty of meaning and imagination, might truly be Botting's wheelhouse. The only criticism I can think of is in prose and the organization of chapters, as this seems to be something Botting has grappled with in every book and essay I have read from him; often, paragraphs read as if his words have run ahead of his intent, and the vagueness of general organization of concepts and chapters can make the central theme of the book hard to catch. It becomes exceedingly vibe-y and thinkpiece-y, which is at times a bit frustrating.

[Mjhancock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Botting considers the Gothic and horror as movements dating back to the 18th century, and traces them to their modern day technologically-based form. The essential argument is that originally, (ala 18th century) the Gothic was about passing Western anxieties into a feudalistic past. But as the industrial age continued, the very tools of technology became the primary sources of anxiety, and the Gothic came to include those as well. And that all leads to our postmodern present day, where we still try to use the Gothic and horror to create little shocks that bring us out of ourselves, but our regular lives are so inundated with shock that rather than a return to some originary source, the Gothic goes nowhere, just an endless circulation. Botting draws on a large number of sources to establish this premise: in the first chapter, the emptying of the paternal authority is seen in Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber"; Frankenstein illustrates the way technology entered the Gothic; "Candyman" shows how it reiterates tropes of gender and race. Chapter two starts with a brief look at how videogames cater to shock, and are treated in a similar fashion as the original Gothic novels, distrusted for their corrupting influence; it then goes into technology shock in general through Dickens' Dombey and Son, and notes the artificiality of horror in everything from the early gothic to Dawn of the Dead. Chapter Three looks at how the body enters this circulating grind, with an examination of the surgery performances of Orlan and other such artists; with the banality of excessive horror and tropes in From Dusk Till Dawn; and the metaphor of the black hole, drawing our attention to an absence. The final chapter continues the metaphor of absence as created and explored by gothic and horror through a discussion of Freud's fort/da discussion, and concludes shortly after. The introduction addresses the book's themes, but only indirectly introduces the argument, though through sheer repetition (ironic, perhaps, given the author's claim that repetition is one of the signs of banality of the modern horror condition) if nothing else, the argument is made very clear. The examination is often very thorough--I learned a lot about Candyman, for example, and I appreciate his thoughts on The Bloody Chamber. As someone who's done a lot of reading on game studies, I think his commentary in that section doesn't quite work; yes, videogames are derided in the manner he says, but they aren't all about quick fixes of shocks and pleasure. He also loses me for a bit in the final chapter, though that's largely because it gets very heavy into psychoanalysis, which isn't an area of interest for me. In the end, though, the book is an impressive accomplishment, as it paints a plausible trajectory from the origin of the Gothic forward into technology and postmodernity.

[Stephanie McGarrah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I wasn't expecting much from this book to be honest. Sometimes I do judge a book by its cover, but the title covers many of my interests so I had to check it out and I'm so glad I did. Its awesome to be reading a book and realize the person who wrote it has been thinking the same things you have been thinking about for awhile and have been able to articulate them well. Limits of Horror got harder as it went on until shit was going over my head, but it was challenging in a great way. Fred Botting knows his way around some philosophy it seems, but I am merely a dabbler so yeah, quite a challenge indeed with him throwing around names like Deleuze and Guattari, Freud, Lacan, Walter Benjamin, and Kristeva to name a few. But it's quite the lineup to frame a discussion on technology, bodies and gothic worlds, so if these people are interesting to you, check this one out.

Recommended for: horror enthusiasts, fans of gothic literature, anticiv people, philosophers, cyberpunks

[Camila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have read this once, but it's not enough. A lot of insightful information concerning the Gothic makes this book worthy of a second reading.