Degeneration, Normativity and the Gothic at the Fin de Siècle

by S. Karschay

Overview

This exciting new study looks at degeneration and deviance in nineteenth-century science and late-Victorian Gothic fiction. The questions it raises are as relevant today as they were at the nineteenth century's fin de siecle: What constitutes the norm from which a deviation has occurred? What exactly does it mean to be 'normal' or 'abnormal'?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349496990
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/2015
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture
Edition description:	1st ed. 2015
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Stephan Karschay is Lecturer in English Literature and British Cultural Studies at the University of Passau, Germany. His main research interests are the relationship between literature and science in the nineteenth century, the Gothic in literature and film, and the cultural representation of scandal.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Degeneration and the Victorian Sciences 3. Detecting the Degenerate: Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan 4. Othering the Degenerate: Bram Stoker's Dracula and Richard Marsh's The Beetle 5. Normalising the Degenerate: Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Marie Corelli's The Sorrows of Satan 6. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

Stephan Karschay examines the prominent questions posed by degeneration theory–what causes human deviance and how can it be detected–by tracing the complex development of degeneration theory … . Degeneration, Normativity and the Gothic at the Fin de Siècle offers readers a productive place to begin interdisciplinary endeavors in Gothic literature, science, and the genealogy of degeneration theory.” (Sharla Hutchison, English Literature in Transition, Vol. 59 (3), January, 2016)

From the Publisher