New Directions in 21st-Century Gothic: The Gothic Compass

Lorna Piatti-Farnell, Donna Lee Brien

Routledge, Apr 24, 2015 - Literary Criticism - 248 pages

This book brings together a carefully selected range of contemporary disciplinary approaches to new areas of Gothic inquiry. Moving beyond the representational and historically based aspects of literature and film that have dominated Gothic studies, this volume both acknowledges the contemporary diversification of Gothic scholarship and maps its changing and mutating incarnations. Drawing strength from their fascinating diversity, and points of correlation, the varied perspectives and subject areas cohere around a number of core themes — of re-evaluation, discovery, and convergence — to reveal emerging trends and new directions in Gothic scholarship. Visiting fascinating areas including the Gothic and digital realities, uncanny food experiences, representations of death and the public media, Gothic creatures and their popular legacies, new approaches to contemporary Gothic literature, and re-evaluations of the Gothic mode through regional narratives, essays reveal many patterns and intersecting approaches, forcefully testifying to the multifaceted, although lucidly coherent, nature of Gothic studies in the 21st Century. The multiple disciplines represented — from digital inquiry to food studies, from fine art to dramaturgy — engage with the Gothic in order to offer new definitions and methodological approaches to Gothic scholarship. The interdisciplinary, transnational focus of this volume provides exciting new insights into, and expanded and revitalised definitions of, the Gothic and its related fields.

Contents

• The Gothic Compass: 1
• An Alternative Approach to Critical Models of the Contemporary Gothic: 11
• Unresolved Quests for Meaning: 24
• 3 Adapting Gothic Literature for Animation: 39
• Gargoyles in Contemporary Gothic Romance: 54
• Features of the Horror Musical: 71
• Remixing Revenants in the Transmedia Age: 84
• online Communities and the Gothic Hypercharacter: 101
• Making Monsters in the Age of Digital Textual ReProduction: 117
• Buffy Postmodern Gothic and Interruptions to the Lesbian Cliché: 132
• The Gothic Memoir: 146
• The Paranormal Entertainer and the Dramaturgy of the Gothic Séance: 163
• A Reflection on GothicInspired Trends in Contemporary Wedding Cake Decoration: 175
• A Gothic Revival in Irish Fine Art Practice: 190
• Select Bibliography: 205
• Contributors: 227
• Index: 233

About the author

Lorna Piatti-Farnell is Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, and President of The Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia.

Donna Lee Brien is Professor of Creative Industries in the School of Creative and Performing Arts, Central Queensland University, Australia.

Bibliographic information

• Title: New Directions in 21st-Century Gothic: The Gothic Compass; Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature
• Editors: Lorna Piatti-Farnell, Donna Lee Brien
• Publisher: Routledge, 2015
• ISBN: 1317609026, 9781317609025
• Length: 248 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / Gothic & Romance; Social Science / Popular Culture