Companion to American Gothic

Charles L. Crow is Professor Emeritus of English at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He is the author of History of the Gothic: American Gothic as well as editor of A Companion to the Regional Literatures of America, and of the widely used anthology American Gothic (2nd Ed. 2012).

• Notes on Contributors xiPreface xviiAcknowledgments xxiiiPart I Theorizing American Gothic 11 The Progress of Theory and the Study of the American Gothic 3Jerrold E. Hogle2 Gothic, Theory, Dream 16David Punter3 American Ruins and the Ghost Town Syndrome 29Martin Procházka4 American Monsters 41Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock5 Creation Anxiety in Gothic Metafiction: The Dark Half and Lunar Park 56Sherry R. TruffinPart II Origins of American Gothic 696 The African American Slave Narrative and the Gothic 71Teresa A. Goddu7 Indian Captivity Narratives and the Origins of American Frontier Gothic 84Matthew Wynn Sivils8 Early American Gothic Drama 96Benjamin F. Fisher9 Charles Brockden Brown: Godfather of the American Gothic 110Carol Margaret Davison10 George Lippard and the Rise of the Urban Gothic 124Chad LuckPart III Classic American Gothic and Its Legacies 13711 New England Gothic 139Faye Ringel12 Descendentalism and the Dark Romantics: Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and the Subversion of American Transcendentalism 151Ted Billy13 “Gigantic Paradox, Too . . . Monstrous for Solution”: Nightmarish Democracy and the Schoolhouse Gothic from “William Wilson” to The Secret History 164Sherry R. Truffin14 The Fall of the House, from Poe to Percy: The Evolution of an Enduring Gothic Convention 177William Moss15 Henry James’s Ghosts 189Andrew Smith16 A Sisterhood of Sleuths: The Gothic Heroine, the Girl Detective, and Their Readers 201Lynette Carpenter17 They are Legend: The Popular American Gothic of Ambrose Bierce and Richard Matheson 212Agnieszka Soltysik MonnetPart IV American Gothic and Race 22318 Is There an Indigenous Gothic? 225Michelle Burnham19 Gothic Transgressions: Charles W. Chesnutt, Conjure, and the Law 238Justin D. Edwards20 Undead Identities: Asian American Literature and the Gothic 249Andrew Hock Soon NgPart V Gothic Modern and Postmodern 26521 I Am Providence: H.P. Lovecraft 267Faye Ringel22 Awful Mystery: Flannery O’Connor as Gothic Artist 279Chad Rohman23 Not a Refuge Yet: Shirley Jackson’s Domestic Hauntings 290Dara Downey24 The Strange Case of Joyce Carol Oates 303Gavin Cologne-Brookes25 “Identical Boxes Spreading like Gangrene”: Defining the Suburban Gothic 315Bernice M. Murphy26 The Cold War Gothic Poetry of Sylvia Plath 328Kathleen L. Nichols27 Sexuality and the Twentieth-Century American Vampire 340William Hughes28 Why Stephen King Still Matters 353Tony Magistrale29 The Ghost of the Counterfeit Child 366Steven Bruhm30 Toni Morrison’s Gothic: Headless Brides and Haunted Communes 378Maisha L. Wester31 When the Blood Trail Comes Full Circle: Cormac McCarthy’s Gothic of Guilt 392Ronja Vieth32 Becoming-Girl/Becoming-Fly/Becoming-Imperceptible: Gothic Posthumanism in Lynda Barry’s Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel 405Ellen E. Berry33 Gothic Self-Fashioning in Gibson’s Novels: Nature, Culture, Identity, Improvisation, and Cyberspace 418John Whatley34 Contemporary Women’s Gothic: From Lost Souls to Twilight 433Gina Wisker35 Apocalyptic Gothic 447Arthur ReddingPart VI Gothic in Other Media 46136 The Darkest Nightmares Imaginable: Gothic Audio Drama from Radio to the Internet 463Richard J. Hand37 Film Noir and the Gothic 475David Fine38 The American Dream/The American Nightmare: American Gothic on the Small Screen 488Carol Margaret Davison39 Digital Games and the American Gothic: Investigating Gothic Game Grammar 503Tanya KrzywinskaPart VII American Gothic and World Gothic 51740 Self-Fragmentation, Diseased Landscapes, and other Enigmatic Engagements: American Gothic and the Literatures of East and Southeast Asia 519Andrew Hock Soon Ng41 Fluid Bodies: Gothic Transmutations in Carlos Fuentes’ Fiction 533Antonio Alcalá González42 Let a New Gender In? American Responses to Contemporary Scandinavian Gothicism 547Carol SiegelIndex 559