Synopses & Reviews
With its roots in Romanticism, antiquarianism, and the primacy of the imagination, the Gothic genre originated in the 18th century, flourished in the 19th, and continues to thrive today. This reference is designed to accommodate the critical and bibliographical needs of a broad spectrum of users, from scholars seeking critical assistance to general readers wanting an introduction to the Gothic, its abundant criticism, and the present state of Gothic Studies. The volume includes alphabetically arranged entries on more than 50 Gothic writers from Horace Walpole to Stephen King. Entries for Russian, Japanese, French, and German writers give an international scope to the book, while the focus on English and American literature shows the dynamic nature of Gothicism today.
Each of the entries is devoted to a particular author or group of authors whose works exhibit Gothic elements, beginning with a primary bibliography of works by the writer, including modern editions. This section is followed by a critical essay, which examines the author's use of Gothic themes, the author's place in the Gothic tradition, and the critical reception of the author's works. The entries close with selected, annotated bibliographies of scholarly studies. The volume concludes with a timeline and a bibliography of the most important broad scholarly works on the Gothic.
Review
Gothic Writers targets the needs of a "broad spectrum of users," from the undergraduate in search of a term paper topic, to the well-published researcher who has references to check or course syllabi to build. It even offers something to a reader who is simply curious about Gothic studies or may be encountering it for the very first time...always accessible and intellectually stimulating. Gothic Writers is excellent in all respects...it will be a welcome addition to reference shelves.Reference &User Services Quarterly
Review
Celebrating the literary gothic's academic revival over the past ten years, this volume's 54 essays discuss 18th- and 19th-century British authors associated with gothic in its heyday and includes entries for American, Canadian, and Japanese writers of the 20th century....Appropriate for reference or circulating collections in academic libraries.Choice
Review
[a]cademic libraries and researchers will find that it offers much.Reference Reviews
Review
[A]n upper-level undergraduate, or perhaps a graduate student in need of a work mapping out the Gothic through its brief critical surveys and annotated bibliographies.SFRA Review
Review
Many of the authors found here are discussed in other resources...but no other work treats them in the context of current Gothic studies. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin
Synopsis
With its roots in Romanticism, antiquarianism, and the primacy of the imagination, the Gothic genre originated in the 18th century, flourished in the 19th, and continues to thrive today. This reference work provides an introduction to Gothic literature and its abundant criticism and summarizes contemporary developments and critical opinion in Gothic Studies. The volume includes alphabetically arranged entries for more than 50 Gothic writers from Horace Walpole to Stephen King. Each entry includes a primary bibliography, a critical essay on the author's place in the Gothic tradition, and a selected, annotated bibliography of scholarship. Entries for Russian, Japanese, French, and German writers give an international scope to the book, while the focus on English and American literature shows the dynamic nature of Gothicism today.
About the Author
DOUGLASS H. THOMSON is Associate Professor of English at Georgia Southern University. He is the author of essays on English Romanticism and the novel.JACK G. VOLLER is Associate Professor of English at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. His publications include The Supernatural Sublime: The Metaphysics of Terror in Anglo-American Romanticism (1994), along with articles on Poe, William Gibson, and funerary semiotics.FREDERICK S. FRANK is Professor Emeritus of English at Allegheny College. He is the coeditor of The Poe Encyclopedia (1997) and the author of Through the Pale Door: A Guide to and through the American Gothic (1990), both available from Greenwood Press.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Dr. John Aikin and Anna Laetitia Aikin Barbauld by Douglass H. Thomson
William Harrison Ainsworth by Jack G. Voller
Ueda Akinari by Frederick S. Frank
Gertrude Atherton by Jack G. Voller
Margaret Atwood by Carol Davison
Jane Austen and the Northanger Novelists (Lawrence Flammenberg,Carl Grosse, Francis Lathom, Eliza Parsons, Regina Maria Roche, Eleanor Sleath) by Douglass H. Thomson and Frederick S. Frank
Francois Thomas Marie de Baculard d'Arnaud by Frederick S. Frank
William Beckford by Jack G. Voller
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce by Douglass H. Thomson
Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte by Douglass H. Thomsom
Edward Bulwer-Lytton by Marie Mulvey-Roberts
Wilkie Collins by Frederick S. Frank
Charlotte Darce by Douglass H. Thomson
Charles Dickens by Douglass H. Thomson
Guillaume Ducray Duminil by Frederick S. Frank
Mary Wilkins Freeman by Jack G. Voller
William Godwin by Douglass H. Thomson
Gothic Chapbooks, Bluebooks and Short Stories in the Magazines by Frederick S. Frank
Gothic Drama by Frederick S. Frank
Nathaniel Hawthorne by Frederick S. Frank
E.T.A. Hoffman by Douglass H. Thomson
James Hogg by Douglass H. Thomson
Washington Irving by Jack G. Voller
Henry James by Douglass H. Thomson
Stephen King by Tony Magistrale
Izumi Kyoka by Frederick S. Frank
D.H. Lawrence by John Humma
Sophia Lee by Douglass H. Thomson
Joseph Sheridan LeFanu by Jack G. Voller
Matthew Gregory "Monk" Lewis by Jack G. Voller
George Lippard by Frederick S. Frank
H.P. Lovecraft by S. T. Joshi
Arthur Machen by Jack G. Voller
Charles Robert Maturin by Jack G. Voller
Herman Melville by Douglass H. Thomson
Toni Morrison by David Dudley
Flannery O'Connor by Douglass H. Thomson
Joyce Carol Oates by Susan Allen Ford
Vladimir Odoevsky by Frederick S. Frank
Edgar Allan Poe by Frederick S. Frank
John Polidori by Douglass H. Thomson
Ann Radcliffe by Frederick S. Frank
Clara Reeve by Jack G. Voller
Marquis de Sade by Douglass H. Thomson
Friedrich Schiller by Tom Lloyd
Sir Walter Scott by Michael Gamer
Mary Wollstonecraft by Marie Mulvey-Roberts
Percy Bysshe Shelley by Jack G. Voller and Douglass Thomson
Charlotte Smith by Jack G. Voller
Robert Louis Stevenson by Douglass H. Thomson
Bram Stoker by Jack G. Voller
Ludwig Tieck by Tom Lloyd
Horace Walpole by Frederick S. Frank
The Gothic Timeline: 1762-2000
General Bibliography of Critical Sources and Resources
Authors/Titles Index
Critics Index
Subject/Theme/Motif Index