Incluye referencias bibliográficas (p. 245-266)

Precedents for "Gothic" fear : Medieval life, Jacobean drama, and eighteenth-century attitudes --
Sexual violence and woman's place : The Castle of Otranto --
Sentiment versus horror : generic ambivalence in female Gothic and Ann Radcliffe's A Sicilian romance --
Public censorship and personal repression : The Monk --
The industrial demon : Frankenstein --
The descent of man and the anxiety of upward mobility : The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde --
The reptilian brain at the fin de siécle : Dracula --
American Gothic : historical and psychological critique in Stephen King's The Shining --
Alien and the future of Gothic.

Exploring the psychological and political implications of Gothic fiction, Valdine Clemens focuses on some major works in the tradition: The Castle of Otranto, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, The Shining, and Alien. She applies both psychoanalytic theory and sociohistorical contexts to offer a fresh approach to Gothic fiction, presenting new insights both about how such novels "work" and about their cultural concerns." "Clemens argues that by stimulating a sense of primordial fear in readers, Gothic horror dramatically calls attention to collective and attitudinal problems that have been unrecognized or repressed in the society at large. Gothic fiction does more, however, than simply reflect social anxieties; it actually facilitates social change. That is, in frightening us out of our collective "wits," Gothic fiction actually shocks us into using them in more viable ways."