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The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the birth of modern feminism, the sexual revolution, and strong growth in the mass-market publishing industry. Women made up a large part of the book market, and Gothic fiction became a higher popular staple. Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart and Phyllis Whitney emerged as prominent authors, while the standardized paperback Gothic sold in the millions. Pitched at middle-class women of all ages, Gothics paved the way for contemporary fiction categories such as urban fantasy, paranormal romance and vampire erotica. Though not as popular today as they once were, Gothic paperbacks retain a cult following--and the books themselves have become collectors' items. They were also the first popular novels to present strong heroines as agents of liberation and transformation. This work offers the missing chapters of the Gothic story, from the imaginative creations of Ann Radcliffe and the Bronte sisters to the bestseller 50 Shades of Grey.
Gothic: Origins and Innovations brings together nineteen papers from an international group of scholars currently researching in the field of the Gothic which take a fresh, contemporary look at the tradition from its eighteenth-century inception to the twentieth century. Topics and authors include the current usage and definition of the term 'Gothic'; the eighteenth-century rise of the genre; the Sublime; Victorian sensation fiction, and authors such as Coleridge, Mary Shelly, Maturin, LeFanu, Washington Irving, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, John Neale, Jack London, Herman Melville, Dickens, Henry James and the movie version of his Turn of the Screw, The Innocents. This wide-ranging s...
This volume, which examines the special contributions of a number of women mystery writers, sheds light on this significant example of common interests in recreational reading among women and men and the reasons behind the early and continuing uncharacteristic near-equality of both sexes in this field of endeavor.
"Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review" was founded in 1979 to provide comprehensive coverage of all the major and minor books being released in the genre at that time. This was the golden era of SF publishing, with a thousand titles (old and new) hitting the stands and the bookshelves each and every year. From the older classics to the newest speculative fiction, this was the period when the best and the brightest shined forth their talents. SF&FBR included reviews by writers in the field, by amateur critics, and by littérateurs and University professors. Over a thousand books were covered during the single year of publication, many of them having been reviewed no where else, before or since. The January 1980 issue includes a comprehensive index of all the works featured during the preceding year. This reprint will be a welcome addition to the literature of science fiction and fantasy criticism. Neil Barron is a retired bibliographer and literary critic, editor of the acclaimed "Anatomy of Wonder" series. Robert Reginald was the publisher for twenty-five years of Borgo Press, and has authored over 110 books of his own.
Gothic forms of feminine fictions is a study of the powers of the Gothic in late twentieth-century fiction and film. Susanne Becker argues that the Gothic, two hundred years after it emerged, exhibits renewed vitality in our media age with its obsession for stimulation and excitement. Today's globalised entertainment culture, relying on soaps, reality TV shows, celebrity and excess, is reflected in the emotional trajectory of the Gothic's violence, eroticism and sentimental excess. Gothic forms of feminine fictions discusses a wide range of anglophone Gothic romances, from the classics through pulp fictions to a postmodern Gothica. This timely and original study is a major contribution to gender and genre theory as well as cultural criticism of the contemporary. It will appeal to scholars in a wide range of fields and become essential for students of the Gothic, contemporary fiction - particularly Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood - and popular culture.
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An encyclopedic, biographical survey of the genre. The entry for each writer consists of a biography, a complete list of separately published books, and a signal critical essay. In addition, living entrants were invited to comment on their work. Series characters and locales have been indicated. Also included are notations of available bibliographies, manuscript collections, and critical studies. Acidic paper. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Dreadful Pleasures offers a lively look at those stories that make our hair stand on end--their persistence in our culture, their manifestations in art, and our need for the frissons they provide. James Twitchell traces our fascination with horror from the cave paintings at Lascaux to the "slasher" movies today. Twitchell finds that three particular stories have had a special resonance in our culture: the bloodsucker (Dracula), the deformed creature (Frankenstein), and the transformation monster (The Wolfman, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Why have these stories persisted to the point of becoming mythic and to the exclusion of others? Whatever happened to the Phantom of the Opera or the Hunchback...
A Dark Night's Dreaming opens by defining the shape of horror fiction today, illuminating the genre's narrative themes, psychological and social contexts, and historical development. The core of the volume focuses on the lives and major works of the six who have dramatically shaped the genre: William Peter Blatty, Thomas Harris, Stephen King, Anne Rice, Peter Straub, and Whitley Strieber. A final chapter analyzes the complex relationship between horror fiction and its adaptation to film. Looking beyond the tormented maidens, madmen, monsters, and other archetypes of the genre, these critics differentiate contemporary Gothic fiction from that of earlier generations while demonstrating that horror remains one of the most important and consistent strains connecting the diverse elements of the American literary tradition. They comment on the genre's enormous popularity and undeniable influence in American society and scrutinize its changing representations of women, monsters, and gore. The volume concludes with an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary works.