American Women's Ghost Stories in the Gilded Age

Anglophone postcolonial studies has been characterized by its secular nature. Yet as the first generation of scholars grapples with mortality, a yearning for spiritual meaning is emerging in many texts. This study synthesizes the sacred language used in these texts with critical theory in order to create a holistic frame for interpretive analysis.

• Acknowledgements Preface 1. 'Fitted to a Frame': Picturing the Gothic Female Body 2. 'Handled With a Chain': Gilman's 'The Yellow Wall-Paper' and The Dangers of the Arabesque 3. 'Dancing Like a Bomb Abroad': Dawson's 'An Itinerant House' and the Haunting Cityscape 4. 'Solemnest of Industries': Wilkins' 'The Southwest Chamber' and Memorial Culture 5. 'Space Stares all Around': Peattie's 'The House that Was Not' and the (Un)Haunted Landscape 6. 'My Labor and My Leisure Too': Wynne's 'The Little Room' and Commodity Culture Afterword

"Downey's readings would be valuable for any instructor or student studying the ghost story, American gothic, or gender in the Gilded Age. Her clear discussions of literary and historical context make the book accessible and engaging for advanced and undergraduate scholars alike, and her productive use of repetition and a reflective format make it useful as a whole or in teachable excerpts." (Laura R. Kremmel, Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, Issue 15, 2016) With references from Poe to Marx to Derrida, this volume is an intriguing and often fascinating mixture of historical and socio-cultural analysis and literary criticism. Rich in ideas that frequently overlap, contradict or complement each other - often exposing the slippery nature of notions themselves - Dara Downey's work eschews the usual psychoanalytical readings of ghost story motifs and offers fresh perspectives. Not just for academics, this book will prove useful to readers wishing to explore the causes and contexts of American ghost stories of the Gilded Age. - The Green Book, (2015) JV 'A compelling volume that powerfully challenges the Western canon of Memory Studies to define a new age of cultural memory in the East.' - Andrew Hoskins