Fred Botting

This is an introduction to a genre of ever-increasing importance in literary studies. Considering writers from Mary Shelley to David Lynch, the author outlines the history, characteristics, cultural significance and critical interpretations of the form.

Gothic

Lily

Botting starts the book with a short but necessary introduction on the nature and meaning of Gothic in a literary sense; a definition that is much needed and still vague at times, and the elusiveness of which is perhaps the weakest aspect of Botting's writing on the matter. The ambivalence and general anxiety at liminal junctures of sociological progress are noted as hallmarks of Gothic literature and the introduction segues into a chronological account of Gothic origins (chapter 2) and later on, 1790's Gothic novel frenzy. Chapter 3 deals with the emergence of Gothic forms and the outlines of Gothic novel taking shape before the works of Radcliffe and Regina Maria Roch were published (discussed in much detail in chapter 4). Chapter 5 dwells on Gothic romanticism made manifest in works like Frankenstein and Melmoth the Wanderer. Chapter 6 recounts various aspects of Gothic literature in Britain and US, and chapter 7, importantly, focuses on fin de siècle Gothic and resurrection of Gothic hallmarks in celebrated works such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula. One major problem I had with this chapter was the strange absence of The Picture of Dorian Grey (mentioned only in passing); a work that is consistently commented upon in any study of fin de siècle Gothic. Other than that, Botting mentions an impressive array of Gothic works in this book and manages to review an extensive number of them, while providing excellent sociopolitical context. The transgressive nature of Gothic and liminal ambivalence are perhaps best reviewed and explored in Botting's study of Dracula. If this is not the first (or most recent) study of Dracula for one to encounter, the originality of Botting's interpretations might be lost on the reader. But it was in fact, original in its time.

 Dracula’s crossing of boundaries is relentless: returning from the past he tyrannises the present, uncannily straddling the borders between life and death and thereby undoing a fundamental human fact. In crossing the borders between East and West he undoes cultural distinctions between civilisation and barbarity, reason and irrationality, home and abroad. Dracula’s threat is his polymorphousness, both literally, in the shapes he assumes, and symbolically in terms of the distinctions he upsets.

Despite the stellar reading of Dracula, the book is far from perfect in my opinion. The use of terminology feels far too casual at times and the entirety of chapter 8 (dealing with modern incarnations of Gothic) is far too rushed and even sloppy. One example that sticks out for me is how Hitchcock's Psycho is discussed under "Science Fiction", which is almost ridiculous and could have been avoided with more care directed towards structuring. The sub-chapter on Postmodern Gothic is equally disappointing and suffers from lack of nuance and structure. I do recommend the book for introductory purposes, especially chapters 1-5, but there are much better works to read on fin de siècle, modern and post-modern Gothic.

Gothic

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