The Cambridge History of the Gothic: Volume 1, Gothic in the Long Eighteenth Century

Angela Wright, Dale Townshend

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781108472708
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108654548
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This first volume of The Cambridge History of the Gothic provides a rigorous account of the Gothic in Western civilisation, from the Goths' sacking of Rome in 410 AD through to its manifestations in British and European culture of the long eighteenth century. Written by international cast of leading scholars, the chapters explore the interdisciplinary nature of the Gothic in the fields of history, literature, architecture and fine art. As much a cultural history of Gothic as an account of the ways in which the Gothic has participated within a number of formative historical events across time, the volume offers fresh perspectives on familiar themes while also drawing new critical attention to a range of hitherto overlooked concerns. From writers such as Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe to eighteenth-century politics and theatre, the volume provides a thorough and engaging overview of early Gothic culture in Britain and beyond.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: The Gothic in/and History
• 1.1 The Goths in Ancient History
• 1.2 The Term ‘Gothic’ in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1680‒1800
• 1.3 The Literary Gothic Before Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto
• 1.4 Gothic Revival Architecture Before Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill
• 1.5 Horace Walpole and the Gothic
• 1.6 Shakespeare’s Gothic Transmigrations
• 1.7 Reassessing the Gothic/Classical Relationship
• 1.8 ‘A World of Bad Spirits’: The Terrors of Eighteenth-Century Empire
• 1.9 In Their Blood: The Eighteenth-Century Gothic Stage
• 1.10 Domestic Gothic Writing after Horace Walpole and before Ann Radcliffe
• 1.11 Early British Gothic and the American Revolution
• 1.12 Gothic and the French Revolution, 1789–1804
• 1.13 The Aesthetics of Terror and Horror: A Genealogy
• 1.14 Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis
• 1.15 The Gothic Novel Beyond Radcliffe and Lewis
• 1.16 Oriental Gothic: Imperial-Commercial Nightmares from the Eighteenth Century to the Romantic Period
• 1.17 The German ‘School’ of Horrors: A Pharmacology of the Gothic
• 1.18 Gothic and the History of Sexuality
• 1.19 Gothic Art and Gothic Culture in the Romantic Era
• 1.20 Time in the Gothic
• Select Bibliography
• Index