Synopses & Reviews
This book is the first full-length evaluation of du Maurier's fiction and the first critical study of du Maurier as a Gothic writer. Using the most recent work in Gothic and gender studies, the authors enter the current debate on the nature of female Gothic and raise questions about du Maurier's relationship to such a tradition. They demonstrate that using recognizable popular forms, she was able to explore through Gothic writing the anxieties of modernity in the kind of fiction many people find accessible. This, they claim, explains the compulsive quality of her best novels and their enduring popularity.
Synopsis
Daphne du Maurier: Writing, Identity and the Gothic Imagination is the first full-length evaluation of du Maurier's fiction and the first critical study of du Maurier as a Gothic writer. Horner and Zlosnik argue that the fears at the heart of du Maurier's Gothic fictions reflect both personal and broader cultural anxieties concerning sexual and social identity. Using the most recent work in Gothic and gender studies they enter the current debate on the nature of Female Gothic and raise questions about du Maurier's relationship to such a tradition.
Synopsis
Acknowledgements - A 'Disembodied Spirit': Writing, Identity and the Gothic Imagination - Family Gothic - Cornish Gothic - The Secrets of Manderley - Foreign Affairs - Murdering (M)others - Endword - Notes - Index
Synopsis
This book is the first full-length evaluation of du Maurier's fiction and the first critical study of du Maurier as a Gothic Writer.
About the Author
Avril Horner is Senior Lecturer in English and Associate Director of European Studies Research Institute at the University of Salford.
Sue Zlosnik is Head of the Department of English at Liverpool Hope University College.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments *
A 'Disembodied Spirit': Writing, Identity and the Gothic Imagination * Writing, Gender and Anxiety * Sexuality, Historical Moment and Identity * Du Maurier and the Gothic: Disembodied Spirits? *
Family Gothic * Cornish Beginnings:
The Loving Spirit * The 'Split Subject':
I'll Never be Young Again * The 'Other' and the 'Foreign':
The Progress of Julius *
Cornish Gothic * Transgression and Desire:
Jamaica Inn * 'The Boy in the Box':
the King's General *
The Secrets of Manderley: Rebecca * Foreign Affairs * 'Nightmère': My Cousin Rachel * The Stranger in the Mirror: The Scapegoat * Murdering (M)others * Homecomings: The Flight if the Falcon * Deaths in Venice: 'Don't Look Now' * Endword * Notes and References * Select Bibliography * Index