Postfeminist Gothic: Critical Interventions in Contemporary Culture

This book explores new critical ground by addressing the intersection of two contentious concepts, postfeminism and Gothic. This collection of original and exciting essays examines a number of Gothic texts, from Anne Radcliffe's romances to modern horror films, in conjunction with diverse postfeminist theories, from backlash to postmodern feminism.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Postfeminist Gothic; B.A.Brabon  & S.Genz Dark Departures: Contemporary Women's Writing after the Gothic; L.Armitt Neo-Splatter: Bride of Chucky and the Horror of Heteronormativity; J.Halberstam Bite-Size Pieces: Disassembling the Gothic Villain in Witchblade ; R.V.Wilcox The Spectral Phallus: Re-Membering the Postfeminist Man; B.A.Brabon (Re)Making the Body Beautiful: Postfeminist Cinderellas and Gothic Tales of Transformation; S.Genz The Stepford Wives : What's a Living Doll to Do in a Post-feminist World?; A.Williams The Postfeminist Filmic Female Gothic Detective: Reading the Bodily Text in Candyman ; D.Long Hoeveler Moving beyond Waste to Celebration: The Postcolonial/Postfeminist Gothic of Nalo Hopkinson's 'A Habit of Waste'; G.Wisker George Elliott Clarke's Beatrice Chancy : Sublimity, Pain, Possibility; D.Heiland Sensibility Gone Mad: Or, Drusilla, Buffy and the (D)evolution of the Heroine of Sensibility; C.Knowles She : Gothic Reverberations in Star Trek: First Contact ; L.Dryden Flight of the Heroine; F.Botting Index

About the Author :
LUCIE ARMITT Professor of English, University of Salford, UK FRED BOTTING Director of the Institute for Cultural Research, Lancaster University, UK LINDA DRYDEN Reader in Literature and Culture, Napier University, UK JUDITH HALBERSTAM Professor of English, University of Southern California, USA DONNA HEILAND Independent scholar DIANE LONG HOEVELER Professor of English, Marquette University, USA CLAIRE KNOWLES Associate Lecturer, School of English, Journalism and European Languages, University of Tasmania RHONDA V. WILCOX Professor of English, Gordon College, Barnesville, USA ANNE WILLIAMS Professor of English, University of Georgia, USA GINA WISKER Head of Centre for Learning and Teaching, University of Brighton, UK

Review :
' Postfeminist Gothic makes a critically important reappraisal of gender scripts in a range of Gothic narratives. Its examination of textual and visual forms, including film and television, provides a comprehensive reconsideration of the culture of the Gothic from the 1970s to the present day. Crucially, the volume explores how debates about gender can be traced within the Gothic and so brings to light how identity is constructed in postmodernity. Written by experts in their field, these essays make a provocative and groundbreaking contribution to scholarship on the Female Gothic, Gender Studies, and Gothic Studies.' - Professor Andrew Smith, University of Glamorgan, UK