A Companion to American Gothic

In recent decades, the literary tradition known as “gothic” has moved from the shadows of cultural and literary studies. Many now recognize it as the record of a society′s repressed narratives, its conscious fears—and its buried nightmares. In the United States, we now understand the gothic as a discourse to which many of the country’s most significant writers have contributed, and which is deeply embedded in its popular culture. A Companion to American Gothic  is a comprehensive collection of original essays that explore the dark side of the American dream. Contributions from a distinguished group of international scholars reveal the origins and evolution of America′s gothic literature—from its roots in narratives of Indian captivity and slavery, through classic authors such as Poe and Hawthorne, and up to its present day manifestations in radio, film, television, graphic novel, and video games.

Notes on Contributors xi Preface xvii Acknowledgments xxiii Part I Theorizing American Gothic 1 1 The Progress of Theory and the Study of the American Gothic 3 Jerrold E. Hogle 2 Gothic, Theory, Dream 16 David Punter 3 American Ruins and the Ghost Town Syndrome 29 Martin Procházka 4 American Monsters 41 Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock 5 Creation Anxiety in Gothic Metafiction: The Dark Half and Lunar Park 56 Sherry R. Truffin Part II Origins of American Gothic 69 6 The African American Slave Narrative and the Gothic 71 Teresa A. Goddu 7 Indian Captivity Narratives and the Origins of American Frontier Gothic 84 Matthew Wynn Sivils 8 Early American Gothic Drama 96 Benjamin F. Fisher 9 Charles Brockden Brown: Godfather of the American Gothic 110 Carol Margaret Davison 10 George Lippard and the Rise of the Urban Gothic 124 Chad Luck Part III Classic American Gothic and Its Legacies 137 11 New England Gothic 139 Faye Ringel 12 Descendentalism and the Dark Romantics: Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and the Subversion of American Transcendentalism 151 Ted Billy 13 “Gigantic Paradox, Too . . . Monstrous for Solution”: Nightmarish Democracy and the Schoolhouse Gothic from “William Wilson” to The Secret History 164 Sherry R. Truffin 14 The Fall of the House, from Poe to Percy: The Evolution of an Enduring Gothic Convention 177 William Moss 15 Henry James’s Ghosts 189 Andrew Smith 16 A Sisterhood of Sleuths: The Gothic Heroine, the Girl Detective, and Their Readers 201 Lynette Carpenter 17 They Are Legend: The Popular American Gothic of Ambrose Bierce and Richard Matheson 212 Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet Part IV American Gothic and Race 223 18 Is There an Indigenous Gothic? 225 Michelle Burnham 19 Gothic Transgressions: Charles W. Chesnutt, Conjure, and the Law 238 Justin D. Edwards 20 Undead Identities: Asian American Literature and the Gothic 249 Andrew Hock Soon Ng Part V Gothic Modern and Postmodern 265 21 I Am Providence: H.P. Lovecraft 267 Faye Ringel 22 Awful Mystery: Flannery O’Connor as Gothic Artist 279 Chad Rohman 23 Not a Refuge Yet: Shirley Jackson’s Domestic Hauntings 290 Dara Downey 24 The Strange Case of Joyce Carol Oates 303 Gavin Cologne–Brookes 25 “Identical Boxes Spreading like Gangrene”: Defining the Suburban Gothic 315 Bernice M. Murphy 26 The Cold War Gothic Poetry of Sylvia Plath 328 Kathleen L. Nichols 27 Sexuality and the Twentieth–Century American Vampire 340 William Hughes 28 Why Stephen King Still Matters 353 Tony Magistrale 29 The Ghost of the Counterfeit Child 366 Steven Bruhm 30 Toni Morrison’s Gothic: Headless Brides and Haunted Communes 378 Maisha L. Wester 31 When the Blood Trail Comes Full Circle: Cormac McCarthy’s Gothic of Guilt 392 Ronja Vieth 32 Becoming–Girl/Becoming–Fly/Becoming–Imperceptible: Gothic Posthumanism in Lynda Barry’s Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel 405 Ellen E. Berry 33 Gothic Self–Fashioning in Gibson’s Novels: Nature, Culture, Identity, Improvisation, and Cyberspace 418 John Whatley 34 Contemporary Women’s Gothic: From Lost Souls to Twilight 433 Gina Wisker 35 Apocalyptic Gothic 447 Arthur Redding Part VI Gothic in Other Media 461 36 The Darkest Nightmares Imaginable: Gothic Audio Drama from Radio to the Internet 463 Richard J. Hand 37 Film Noir and the Gothic 475 David Fine 38 The American Dream/The American Nightmare: American Gothic on the Small Screen 488 Carol Margaret Davison 39 Digital Games and the American Gothic: Investigating Gothic Game Grammar 503 Tanya Krzywinska Part VII American Gothic and World Gothic 517 40 Self–Fragmentation, Diseased Landscapes, and other Enigmatic Engagements: American Gothic and the Literatures of East and Southeast Asia 519 Andrew Hock Soon Ng 41 Fluid Bodies: Gothic Transmutations in Carlos Fuentes’ Fiction 533 Antonio Alcalá González 42 Let a New Gender In? American Responses to Contemporary Scandinavian Gothicism 547 Carol Siegel Index 559

Charles L. Crow is Professor Emeritus of English at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.  He is the author of History of the Gothic: American Gothic ; editor of A Companion to the Regional Literatures of America , and of the widely used anthology American Gothic (2 nd Ed. 2012).