The Gothic and Theory: An Edinburgh Companion(Edinburgh Companions to the Gothic)

About the Book

Provides a scholarly account of the striking interplay between the Gothic and theory over two-and-a-half centuries
This collection provides a thorough representation of the early and ongoing conversation between Gothic and theory philosophical, aesthetic, psychological and cultural both in the many modes of Gothic and in many of the realms of theory now current in the modern world. Each essay focuses on a particular kind of theoryGothic relationship, every one of which has a history and each of which is still being explored in enactments of the Gothic and of theory today.
Key Features
Provides the first detailed discussion of the interrelationship between literary theory and the Gothic from the inception of the Gothic to the present dayEnables students to connect what otherwise seem a wide variety of diverse phenomena, from the rise of philosophical 'emotivism' to poetic tales of terror and Gothic filmAdvancescurrent scholarly investigation, by invigorating debates within both Gothic studies and literary theory. Makes connections between a wide variety of issues, from eco-crisis and contemporary culture wars to the persistent problem of the 'other'

Table of Contents:
AcknowledgementsThe Gothic-Theory Conversation: An Introduction - Jerrold E. Hogle Part I: The Gothic, Theory, and History 1. History / Genealogy / Gothic: Godwin, Scott, and Their Progeny - Robert Miles2. The Gothic in and as Race Theory - Maisha Wester 3. Postcolonial Gothic in and as Theory - Alison Rudd Part II: The Gothic of Psychoanalysis and its Exfoliations 4. The Gothic Body Before and After Freud - Steven Bruhm5. Abjection as Gothic and the Gothic as Abjection - Jerrold E. Hogle Part III: Feminism, Gender Theory, Sexuality, and the Gothic6. Unsettling Feminism: The Savagery of Gothic - Catherine Spooner7. Gothic Fiction and Queer Theory - George E. Haggerty Part IV. Theorizing the Gothic in Modern Media8. The Gothic at the Heart of Film and Film Theory - Elisabeth Bronfen 9. Techo-Terrors and the Emergence of Cyber-Gothic - Anya Heise-von der Lippe Part V: The Gothic Before and After Poststructuralism10. The Gothic as a Theory of Symbolic Exchange - David Collings11. Incorporations: The Gothic and Deconstruction - Tilottama Rajan12.Dark Materialism: Gothic Objects, Commodities, and Things - Fred Botting13. Thinking the Thing: The Outer Reaches of Knowledge in Lovecraft and Deleuze - Anna Powell14. Gothic and the Question of Ethics: Otherness, Alterity, Violence - Dale Townshend Part VI: The Gothic-Theory Relationship in Retrospect and Prospect 15. On the Threshold of Gothic: A Reflection - David Punter

About the Author :
Jerrold E. Hogle is Professor of English and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona in the USA and Past President of the International Gothic Association. His published books include Shelley’s Process (1988), The Undergrounds of The Phantom of the Opera (2002), and both The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction and The Cambridge Companion to the Modern Gothic. Robert Miles is Professor of English at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and Past President of the International Gothic Association. His published books include Gothic Writing 1750-1820: A Genealogy (1993), Ann Radcliffe: The Great Enchantress (1995), and Romantic Misfits (2008). He is the co-editor, with E.J. Clery, of Gothic Documents: A Sourcebook 1700-1820 (2000).

Review :
This delightful collection of essays illuminates the symbiotic nature of the relationship between the Gothic and Theory. The editors are to be congratulated on assembling what is sure to become an indispensable volume for both students and scholars of the Gothic and of Theory. The Gothic and Theory gives readers different ways to think about the relationship between theory and the gothic. It will be especially useful for those who teach classes on the gothic in a transhistorical and transnational way, and it makes a convincing argument that the gothic remains one of the most productive forms in which to think through our contemporary cultural problems. Jerrold E. Hogle and Robert Miles stage an impressive rehearsal of the present state of a quarter-millennium of “conversation” between “Gothic” and “theory.”