DAVID PUNTER is Professor of English Studies at the University of Stirling, where he has been since 1988. Previously he was Professor and Head of Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a past President of the British Association for Romantic Studies and Chair of the Council for College and University English. He has published extensively on Gothic, romantic and contemporary writing, as well as on literature and psychoanalysis.

• Gothic Origins: The Haunting of the Text The Gothic and the Law: Limits of the Permissible Laws which Bind the Body: The Case of the Monster Re-enactments of the Primal Scene: The Example of Zastrozzi Regimes of Terror: From Robespierre to Conrad Identification and Gender: The Law of Ligeia A Descent into the Body: Wuthering Heights Psycho pathology: Contamination and the House of Gothic Laws of Recollection and Reconstruction: Stephen King The Body Sublime: Liu Suola's King of Singers Gothic After/Words: Abuse and the Body Beyond the Law

'This book maintains David Punter's well-earned stature as a major teacher of us all about the most basic drives in Gothic writing, ones that he reveals with new intensity and power in this provocative and complex study.' - Gothic Studies 'A rich work of critical bricolage...Punter's intensely political engagement.' - Steven Bruhm, Romanticism On the Net