The Gothic Condition

David Punter

Description

This book brings together fourteen of the most ambitious and thought-provoking recent essays by David Punter, who has been writing on the Gothic to academic and general acclaim for over thirty years. Punter addresses developments in Gothic writing and Gothic criticism since the mid-eighteenth century, by isolating and discussing specific themes and scenarios that have remained relevant to literary and philosophical discussion over the decades and centuries, and also by paying close attention to the motifs, figures and recurrences that loom so large in twenty-first-century engagements with the Gothic. This book, while engaging deeply with Gothic history, constantly addresses our continuing immediate encounters with Gothic tropes – the vampire, the zombie, the phantom, the living dead.

Phantoms of Theory
1) Spectrality: The Ghosting of Theory
Fables of History
2) Francis Lathom in the Eighteenth Century
3) Types of Tyranny
Sciences of the Strange
4) Pseudo-Science and the Creation of Monsters
5) Technogenealogies: Family Secrets
6) The Abhuman Remains of the Gothic
7) ‘A Foot is What fits the Shoe’: Gothic, Disability and Prosthesis
Some Humans, Some Monstrosities
8) M.R. James: Terror and History
9) Dark and Light Rays: The Penetration of the Body
10) Of Monsters and Animals
Global, Local, War
11) Cyborgs, Borders and Stories for Virgins: Mexico and the Gothic
12) Heart Lands: Contemporary Scottish Gothic
Last Things
13) Grievous Bodily Harm
14) Thoughts on Teaching Psychoanalysis and the Gothic

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Romance
• Gothic

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 20 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783168224
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 14 Mo

Extrait

THE GOTHIC CONDITION

SERIES PREFACE Gothic Literary Studies is dedicated to publishing groundbreaking scholarship on Gothic in literature and film. The Gothic, which has been subjected to a variety of critical and theoretical approaches, is a form which plays an important role in our understanding of literary, intellectual and cultural histories. The series seeks to promote challenging and innovative approaches to Gothic which question any aspect of the Gothic tradition or perceived critical orthodoxy. Volumes in the series explore how issues such as gender, religion, nation and sexuality have shaped our view of the Gothic tradition. Both academically rigorous and informed by the latest developments in critical theory, the series provides an important focus for scholarly developments in Gothic studies, literary studies, cultural studies and critical theory. The series will be of interest to students of all levels and to scholars and teachers of the Gothic and literary and cultural histories.

SERIES EDITORS Andrew Smith, University of Sheffield Benjamin F. Fisher, University of Mississippi

EDITORIAL BOARD Kent Ljungquist, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Massachusetts Richard Fusco, St Joseph’s University, Philadelphia David Punter, University of Bristol Chris Baldick, University of London Angela Wright, University of Sheffield Jerrold E. Hogle, University of Arizona

For all titles in the Gothic Literary Studies series please visitwww.uwp.co.uk

The Gothic Condition Terror, History and the Psyche

David Punter

UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS 2016

© David Punter, 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CataloguinginPublication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN eISBN

9781783168217 9781783168224

The right of David Punter to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Typeset in Wales by Eira Fenn Gaunt, Pentyrch, Cardiff Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire

Acknowledgements

Introduction

C ONTENTS

Phantoms of Theory 1 Spectrality: The Ghosting of Theory

Fables of History 2 Francis Lathom in the Eighteenth Century 3 Types of Tyranny

Sciences of the Strange 4 PseudoScience and the Creation of Monsters 5 Technogenealogies: Family Secrets 6 The Abhuman Remains of the Gothic 7 ‘A Foot is What Fits the Shoe’: Gothic, Disability and Prosthesis

Some Humans, Some Monstrosities 8 M. R. James: Terror and History 9 Dark and Light Rays: The Penetration of the Body 10 Of Monsters and Animals

Global, Local, War 11 Cyborgs, Borders and Stories for Virgins: Mexico and the Gothic 12 Heart Lands: Contemporary Scottish Gothic

vii

1

9

31 51

71 87 96

106

121

135 143

161 179

Contents

Last Things 13 Grievous Bodily Harm 14 Thoughts on Teaching Psychoanalysis and the Gothic

Notes Bibliography Index

v

i

203

219

231 253 265

A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘Spectrality: The Ghosting of Theory’ was first delivered as a guest lecture in 2002 at Leeds Metropolitan University, and subsequently, in a different form, at a conference on Postmodernism and Spirituality the same year at the University of Central Lancashire. ‘Francis Lathom in the Eighteenth Century’ was first published inGothic Studiesin 2003. ‘Types of Tyranny’ is a version, much amended, of a keynote paper given at a conference on Liberty and Limits at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, in 2013. ‘PseudoScience and the Creation of Monsters’ was the result of an invitation to address a symposium on science and literature at King’s College School, Wimbledon in 2005. ‘Technogenealogies: Family Secrets’ has had several outings in different guises; probably the most significant was in the form of a paper at the 2012 conference of the European Society for the Study of English held at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. ‘The Abhuman Remains of the Gothic’ was delivered at a conference on human remains under the auspices of the Hunterian Museum, London, in 2013. ‘“A Foot is What Fits the Shoe”’ was published, again inGothic Studies, in 2000. ‘M. R. James: Terror and History’ is the result of a collision between two papers, one delivered at a symposium on the Renaissance and Gothic at the University of Cologne in 2009, the other, much revised, at Salford University in 2001. ‘Dark and Light Rays’ was delivered at the 2013 conference of the International Gothic Association at the University of Surrey. ‘Of Monsters and Animals’ was given in 2011 at a conference on monstrosity at De Montfort University, Leicester. ‘Cyborgs, Borders and Stories for Virgins’ has a complex history: it principally involves elements from a keynote lecture at a conference on the fantastic at the University of Naples in 2007, and one given

Acknowledgements

that same year to a symposium on global Gothic at the University of Stirling; it has been previously available on the websitewww. gothic.stirling.ac.uk. ‘Heart Lands’ was originally published inGothic Studiesin 1999. ‘Grievous Bodily Harm’ was a keynote lecture at the conference of the International Gothic Association at the University of Heidelberg in 2011. ‘Thoughts on Teaching Psychoanalysis and the Gothic’ is from 2003, when it was delivered at a conference on the ‘remains’ of the Gothic at the University of Toulouse; it was published in Anglophoniathe following year.

viii

A LSOBY D AVID P UNTER

The Literature of Terror: A History of Gothic Fictions from 1765 to the Present Day

Romanticism and Ideology: Studies in English Writing 1765–1830 (with David Aers and Jonathan Cook)

Blake, Hegel and Dialectic

The Hidden Script: Writing and the Unconscious

Introduction to Contemporary Cultural Studies(editor)

William Blake: Selected Poetry and Prose(editor)

The Romantic Unconscious: A Study in Narcissism and Patriarchy

Notes on Selected Poems of Philip Larkin

William Blake: The New Casebook(editor)

Romanticism(CDROM:Annotated Bibliography of English Studies, Vol. 306)

Notes on William Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’

Gothic Pathologies: The Text, the Body and the Law

Spectral Readings: Towards a Gothic Geography(editor, with Glennis Byron)