Monsters In and Among Us Toward a Gothic Criminology

The Gothic is flourishing not just in Stephen King's novels and Quentin Tarantino's films, but also in the media renderings of phenomena like the O. J. Simpson case, and in characterizations of terrorism, in our political and popular discourses, in modes of therapy, on TV news, on talk shows like Oprah, in our discussions of AIDS, and of the environment. This collection of essays critically interrogates contemporary visualizations of the Gothic and the monstrous in film and media. The ongoing fascination with evil, as simultaneously repellant and irresistibly attractive in the Hollywood film, criminological case studies, popular culture, and even public policy, points to the emergence of 'Gothic criminology,' with its focus on themes such as blood lust, compulsion, godlike vengeance, and power and determination. What prompts this anthology is an explosion of books and films that link violence, images of 'monstrosity,' and Gothic modes of narration and visualization in American popular culture, academia, and even public policy. As Mark Edmundson notes, 'Gothic conventions have slipped over into ostensibly nonfictional realms. Gothic is alive not just in Stephen King's novels and Quentin Tarantino's films, but in the media and renderings of our political discourse, in modes of therapy, on TV news, on talk shows like Oprah, in our discussions of AIDS and of the environment. American culture at large has become suffused with Gothic assumptions, with Gothic characters and plots.' Nevertheless, there have been few critical anthologies aimed at an interdisciplinary approach focusing specifically on the complex continuum of fact and fiction, involving a dialogue that moves across the humanities (film criticism, cultural studies, rhetoric) and the social services communication, criminology, sociology) in exploring this phenomenon.