The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the Fin de Siècle

by Kelly Hurley

Overview

This book accounts for the resurgence of Gothic, and its immense popularity, during the British fin de siècle. In particular, Kelly Hurley explores a key scenario that haunts the genre: the loss of a unified and stable human identity, and the emergence of a chaotic and transformative "abhuman" identity in its place. Gothic is revealed as a highly productive and speculative genre, strongly indebted to nineteenth-century scientific, medical and social theories, including evolutionism, criminal anthropology and degeneration theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521552592
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/05/1996
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture , #8
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. The Gothic Material World: 1. The revenge of matter; 2. Symptomatic readings; Part II. Gothic Bodies: 3. Evolutionism and the loss of human specificity; 4. Entropic bodies; 5. Chaotic bodies; Part III. Gothic Sexualities: 6. Uncanny female interiors; 7. Abjected masculinities; Afterword; 8. Narrative chaos.