James Goho

Journeys into Darkness

Critical Essays on Gothic Horror

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

The tradition of supernatural horror fiction runs deep in Anglo-American literature. From the Gothic novels of the eighteenth century to such contemporary authors as Stephen King and Anne Rice, writers have employed horror fiction to unearth many disquieting truths about the human condition, ranging from mistreatment of women and minorities to the ever-present dangers of modern city life. In Journeys into Darkness: Critical Essays on Gothic Horror, James Goho analyzes many significant writers and trends in American and British horror fiction. Beginning with Charles Brockden Brown's disturbing novels of terror and madness, Goho proceeds to discuss the influence of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" on H. P. Lovecraft, who is treated in several penetrating essays. Lovecraft was a uniquely philosophical writer, and Goho approaches his work through the lens of existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, while also probing Lovecraft's racism as exhibited in several tales about Native Americans. Goho also discusses the Welsh writer Arthur Machen's tortured tales of suffering and evil and Algernon Blackwood's numerous stories set in the wilds of the Canadian backwoods. The book concludes with a centuries-spanning essay on the witchcraft theme in the American Gothic tradition and a comprehensive essay on Fritz Leiber's invention of the urban Gothic. In this wide-ranging study, James Goho examines the varied ways in which supernatural fiction can address the deepest moral, social, and political concerns of the human experience. Journeys into Darkness will be of interest to readers and scholars of horror fiction and to students of literary history and culture in general.

Produktdetails

• Studies in Supernatural Literature
• Verlag: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Seitenzahl: 234
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. März 2014
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 157mm x 18mm
• Gewicht: 539g
• ISBN-13: 9781442231450
• ISBN-10: 1442231459
• Artikelnr.: 39684875

Autorenporträt

James Goho has numerous publications in short fiction, social science studies, and gothic literature. He lives in Winnipeg, Canada.

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Dark Beginnings: Fear and Trembling
in the Novels of Charles Brockden Brown Chapter 2: Poe's "The Fall of the
House of Usher": A Predecessor to Lovecraft's "The Outsider"? Chapter 3:
The Realm of Suffering: Ambrose Bierce and the Phantoms of the American
Civil War Chapter 4: Suffering and Evil in the Short Fiction of Arthur
Machen Chapter 5: The Haunted Wood: Algernon Blackwood's Canadian Stories
Chapter 6: The Sickness unto Death in H. P. Lovecraft's "The Hound" Chapter
7: The Aboriginal in the Works of H. P. Lovecraft Chapter 8: What is "the
Unnamable"? H. P. Lovecraft and the Problem of Evil Chapter 9: From Salem
to Eastwick: Witchcraft in the American Gothic Chapter 10: The City of
Darkness: Fritz Leiber and the Beginning of Modern Urban Horror Selected
Bibliography Filmography About the Author