Buch, Englisch, 192 Seiten, Format (B × H): 113 mm x 174 mm, Gewicht: 140 g
Reihe: Very Short Introductions
A Very Short Introduction
Buch, Englisch, 192 Seiten, Format (B × H): 113 mm x 174 mm, Gewicht: 140 g
Reihe: Very Short Introductions
ISBN: 978-0-19-958679-0
Verlag: Oxford University Press, USA
The Gothic is wildly diverse. It can refer to ecclesiastical architecture, supernatural fiction, cult horror films, and a distinctive style of rock music. It has influenced political theorists and social reformers, as well as Victorian home décor and contemporary fashion. Nick Groom shows how the Gothic has come to encompass so many meanings by telling the story of the Gothic from the ancient tribe who sacked Rome to the alternative subculture of the present day.
This unique Very Short Introduction reveals that the Gothic has predominantly been a way of understanding and responding to the past. Time after time, the Gothic has been invoked in order to reveal what lies behind conventional history. It is a way of disclosing secrets, whether in the constitutional politics of seventeenth-century England or the racial politics of the United States. While contexts change, the Gothic perpetually regards the past with fascination, both yearning and horrified. It reminds us that neither societies nor individuals can escape the consequences of their actions.
The anatomy of the Gothic is richly complex and perversely contradictory, and so the thirteen chapters here range deliberately widely. This is the first time that the entire story of the Gothic has been written as a continuous history: from the historians of late antiquity to the gardens of Georgian England, from the mediaeval cult of the macabre to German Expressionist cinema, from Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy to American consumer society, from folk ballads to vampires, from the past to the present.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Zielgruppe
General readers interested in the theme of the Gothic; students of Gothic literature and cinema, film studies, and cultural studies.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
Introduction: A history of the Gothic in thirteen chapters
1: Origins of the Goths
2: The ascent to heaven
3: The iconoclasts
4: The revenge of the dead
5: Liberty gothic
6: Gothic whiggery
7: The Sixties
8: The descent into hell
9: The poetics of blood
10: The gothic dream
11: New England goths
12: Goths at the movies
13: First and last and always
Further reading
