Democracy and the American Gothic

Bibliographic Data

ID19905907
AuthorsMichael J Blouin (0009-0008-2502-1867, Milligan College, corresponding author)
Year2024
Publication date2024-07-31
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueDemocracy and the American Gothic (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/9781009279932
OpenAlexW4399474629
Open LibraryOL51804179M
ISBN9781009279932
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited45

While the political undercurrent of the American Gothic has been firmly established, few scholars have surveyed the genre's ambivalent relationship to democracy. The American Gothic routinely undercuts centralised authority by exposing the dark underbelly of the status quo; at the same time, the American Gothic tends to reflect a widespread mistrust of the masses. American readers are too afraid of democracy – and not yet fearful enough. This concise Element theorises the democratic and anti-democratic elements of the American Gothic by surveying the conflicted imaginaries of the genre's mainstays, including Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, and Stephen King

Ambivalence · American literature · Art · Democracy · Literature · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Status quo · Crime and Detective Fiction Studies · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law · Psychology

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