Rebecca Duncan - Böcker

Monsters have always swarmed around the frontiers of colonialism and capitalism, from Europe's invasion and occupation of the Americas to the planetary emergency of the present day. In this volume, we discover how the early British Gothic - far from a progenitor - is in fact a belated cultural response to capitalist modernity, one anticipated by myriad spectres haunting the plantations of the 'New World'. Gothic did not begin in Britain, and then become global over time. Rather, as the volume reveals, gothic has always been world-gothic: a way of dealing with the alienation and anxiety that erupt with capitalist modernisation, when- and wherever this is taking place. Essays in the volume chart the new links and comparisons enabled by this insight, renovating established gothic concepts and outlining groundbreaking new theoretical infrastructure. Together, chapters provincialise the 'western' gothic tradition, in order to open up new possibilities for world-gothic reading.

Monsters have always swarmed around the frontiers of colonialism and capitalism, from Europe's invasion and occupation of the Americas to the planetary emergency of the present day. In this volume, we discover how the early British Gothic - far from a progenitor - is in fact a belated cultural response to capitalist modernity, one anticipated by myriad spectres haunting the plantations of the 'New World'. Gothic did not begin in Britain, and then become global over time. Rather, as the volume reveals, gothic has always been world-gothic: a way of dealing with the alienation and anxiety that erupt with capitalist modernisation, when- and wherever this is taking place. Essays in the volume chart the new links and comparisons enabled by this insight, renovating established gothic concepts and outlining groundbreaking new theoretical infrastructure. Together, chapters provincialise the 'western' gothic tradition, in order to open up new possibilities for world-gothic reading.

Following the publication of Ghost Town (2005), a complex, globally conscious genealogy of millennial Manhattan, McGrath’s transnational status as an English author resident in New York, his pointed manipulation of British and American contexts, and his clear apprehension of imperial legacies have all come into sharper focus. By bringing together readings cognizant of this transnational and historical sensitivity with those that build on existing studies of McGrath’s engagements with the gothic and madness, Patrick McGrath and his Worlds sheds new light on an author whose imagined realities reflect the anxieties, pathologies, and power dynamics of our contemporary world order. McGrath’s fiction has been noted as parodic (The Grotesque, 1989), psychologically disturbing (Spider, 1990), and darkly sexual (Asylum, 1996). Throughout, his corpus is characterized by a preoccupation with madness and its institutions and by a nuanced relationship to the gothic. With its international range of contributors, and including a new interview with McGrath himself, this book opens up hitherto underexplored theoretical perspectives on the key concerns of McGrath’s ouevre, moving conversations around McGrath’s work decisively forward. Offering the first sustained exploration of his fiction’s transnational and world-historical dimensions, Patrick McGrath and his Worlds seeks to situate, reflect upon, and interrogate McGrath’s role as a key voice in Anglophone letters in our millennial global moment.

Following the publication of Ghost Town (2005), a complex, globally conscious genealogy of millennial Manhattan, McGrath’s transnational status as an English author resident in New York, his pointed manipulation of British and American contexts, and his clear apprehension of imperial legacies have all come into sharper focus. By bringing together readings cognizant of this transnational and historical sensitivity with those that build on existing studies of McGrath’s engagements with the gothic and madness, Patrick McGrath and his Worlds sheds new light on an author whose imagined realities reflect the anxieties, pathologies, and power dynamics of our contemporary world order. McGrath’s fiction has been noted as parodic (The Grotesque, 1989), psychologically disturbing (Spider, 1990), and darkly sexual (Asylum, 1996). Throughout, his corpus is characterized by a preoccupation with madness and its institutions and by a nuanced relationship to the gothic. With its international range of contributors, and including a new interview with McGrath himself, this book opens up hitherto underexplored theoretical perspectives on the key concerns of McGrath’s ouevre, moving conversations around McGrath’s work decisively forward. Offering the first sustained exploration of his fiction’s transnational and world-historical dimensions, Patrick McGrath and his Worlds seeks to situate, reflect upon, and interrogate McGrath’s role as a key voice in Anglophone letters in our millennial global moment.

Substantially reworks accounts of gothic and globalisation, to examine located gothic engagements with global histories and phenomenaProvides a comprehensive theorisation of globalgothic in the age of planetary crisisIncludes analyses of gothic fiction from six continentsOffers a range of new globalgothic approaches, modalities and regional permutationsThe Edinburgh Companion to Globalgothic is the most substantial exploration to date of gothic fiction in the international context. Examining texts from across six continents, the volume considers how gothic imagines, colludes with or interrogates relationships and phenomena that are planetary in scale. Accordingly, chapters address gothic engagements with among others resource imperialism, (ongoing) colonial history, diasporic identity, buckling economic unions, the rise of the internet, enthnonationalism, and entangled systems of gendered, racialised and ecocidal power. In this way, the collection moves decisively beyond the framework of globalisation to identify a range of new globalgothic approaches and modes, overall demonstrating that gothic is a key though sometimes complicit register for negotiating the challenges and histories of our uneven global present.

The Edinburgh Companion to Globalgothic is the most substantial exploration to date of gothic fiction in the international context. Examining texts from across six continents, the volume considers how gothic imagines, colludes with or interrogates relationships and phenomena that are planetary in scale. Accordingly, chapters address gothic engagements with – among others – resource imperialism, (ongoing) colonial history, diasporic identity, buckling economic unions, the rise of the internet, enthnonationalism, and entangled systems of gendered, racialised and ecocidal power. In this way, the collection moves decisively beyond the framework of globalisation to identify a range of new globalgothic approaches and modes, overall demonstrating that gothic is a key – though sometimes complicit – register for negotiating the challenges and histories of our uneven global present.