The Gothic Tradition

by General editor Adrian Barlow , John Smart , Pamela Bickley , Ian Brinton , Stephen Siddall

• ISBN13: 9780521777322
• ISBN10: 0521777321
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-15
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Gothic Tradition is a new title in the Cambridge Contexts in Literature series. It is designed to support the needs of advanced level students of English literature. Each title in the series has the quality, content and level endorsed by the OCR examination board. However, the texts provide the background and focus suitable for any examination board at advanced level. The series explores the contextual study of texts by concentrating on key periods, topics and comparisons in literature. Each book adopts an interactive approach and provides the background for understanding the significance of literary, historical and social contexts. Students are encouraged to investigate different interpretations that may be applied to literary texts by different readers, through a variety of activities and questions, the use of study aids, such as chronologies and glossaries, and the inclusion of anthology sections to exemplify issues.

Table of Contents

Introduction	5	(3)
Approaching the gothic tradition	8	(38)
The historical context	8	(2)
Gothic influences	10	(5)
The political context	15	(3)
The spiritual context	18	(4)
Gothic literary forms and audiences	22	(6)
Gothic writers and readers	28	(3)
The contemporary context	31	(1)
Contemporary gothic literature	32	(4)
The gothic cinema	36	(2)
Gothic music	38	(1)
Other gothic media	38	(1)
Gothic dangers	39	(1)
Gothic Whitby	40	(3)
Assignments	43	(3)
Approaching the texts	46	(14)
Textual characteristics of the gothic	46	(1)
Gothic fascination for the past	47	(2)
The sublime and supernatural in the gothic	49	(2)
Gothic psychology	51	(2)
Gothic horror	53	(1)
Gothic settings	54	(2)
Gothic style	56	(2)
Assignments	58	(2)
Texts and extracts	60	(35)
The Castle of Otranto	60	(2)
Horace Walpole
Vathek	62	(2)
William Beckford
The Monk	64	(6)
Matthew Lewis
The Italian	70	(4)
Ann Radcliffe
`Christabel'	74	(2)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Frankenstein	76	(1)
Mary Shelley
Northanger Abbey	77	(4)
Jane Austen
`La Belle Dame sans Merci'	81	(1)
John Keats
`The Raven'	82	(4)
Edgar Allan Poe
Wuthering Heights	86	(1)
Emily Bronte
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde	87	(3)
Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula	90	(2)
Bram Stoker
The Woman in Black	92	(3)
Susan Hill
Critical approaches	95	(17)
The nature of literary criticism	95	(1)
Historical survey of critical approaches to the gothic	96	(4)
Survey of contemporary critical approaches to the gothic	100	(10)
Assignments	110	(2)
How to write about the gothic	112	(8)
A sense of genre	112	(2)
An appreciation of purpose	114	(1)
Insights into audience	115	(2)
Assignments	117	(3)
Resources	120	(7)
Chronology	120	(1)
Further reading	121	(5)
Glossary	126	(1)
Index	127