Ecogothic - Paperback

by Andrew Smith (Editor), William Hughes (Editor)

This book will provide the first study of how the Gothic engages with ecocritical ideas. The book's focus is from the late eighteenth century to the present day, via consideration of a number of national and global contexts and different media including short stories, novels and films.

Front Jacket

This book will provide the first study of how the Gothic engages with ecocritical ideas. Ecocriticism has frequently explored images of environmental catastrophe, the wilderness, the idea of home, constructions of 'nature', and images of the post-apocalypse - images which are also central to a certain type of Gothic literature. By exploring the relationship between the ecocritical aspects of the Gothic and the Gothic elements of the ecocritical, this book provides a new way of looking at both the Gothic and ecocriticism. The book's focus is from the late eighteenth century to the present day, via consideration of a number of national and global contexts and different media including short stories, novels and films. Writers discussed include Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Margaret Atwood, Cormac McCarthy, Dan Simmons and Rana Dasgupta. The volume thus explores writing and film across various national contexts including Britain, America and Canada, as well as giving due consideration to how such issues might be discussed within a global context. This book will be invaluable to academics and students working in the areas of Gothic Studies, ecocriticism and cultural studies. It provides an innovative approach to both the Gothic and the ecocritical and constitutes a new way of thinking about the critical reach of ecocriticism whilst establishing an alternative critical context for approaching the Gothic. Contributors to the volume are drawn from an international network of scholars which reflects the global significance of work on ecocriticism.

Back Jacket

This book will provide the first study of how the Gothic engages with ecocritical ideas. Ecocriticism has frequently explored images of environmental catastrophe, the wilderness, the idea of home, constructions of 'nature', and images of the post-apocalypse - images which are also central to a certain type of Gothic literature. By exploring the relationship between the ecocritical aspects of the Gothic and the Gothic elements of the ecocritical, this book provides a new way of looking at both the Gothic and ecocriticism.

The book's focus is from the late eighteenth century to the present day, via consideration of a number of national and global contexts and different media including short stories, novels and films. Writers discussed include Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Margaret Atwood, Cormac McCarthy, Dan Simmons and Rana Dasgupta. The volume thus explores writing and film across various national contexts including Britain, America and Canada, as well as giving due consideration to how such issues might be discussed within a global context.

This book will be invaluable to academics and students working in the areas of Gothic Studies, ecocriticism and cultural studies. It provides an innovative approach to both the Gothic and the ecocritical and constitutes a new way of thinking about the critical reach of ecocriticism whilst establishing an alternative critical context for approaching the Gothic.

Contributors to the volume are drawn from an international network of scholars which reflects the global significance of work on ecocriticism.

Author Biography

Andrew Smith is Reader in Nineteenth Century English Literature at the University of Sheffield. 'He is a past president of the International Gothic Association

William Hughes is Professor of Gothic Studies at Bath Spa University. He is the founder-editor of Gothic Studies, the refereed journal of the International Gothic Association