Spectres of Antiquity

Classical Literature and the Gothic, 1740-1830

Bibliographic Data

ID9323748
AuthorsJames Uden (0000-0002-8770-446X, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, Boston University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Pages280
Publication date2020-10-22
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueSpectres of Antiquity (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressNew York (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780190910273.001.0001
OpenAlexW4252069053
ISBN9780190910273
Open LibraryOL29518382M
LanguageEN
Citations received5

Gothic literature imagines the return of ghosts from the past. What about the classical past? Spectres of Antiquity is the first full-length study describing the relationship between Greek and Roman culture and the Gothic novels, poetry, and drama of the eighteenth and early-nineteenth century. Rather than simply representing the opposite of classical aesthetics and ideas, the Gothic emerged from an awareness of the lingering power of antiquity, and it irreverently fractures and deconstructs classical images and ideas. The Gothic also reflects a new vision of the ancient world: no longer inspiring modernity through its examples, antiquity has become a ghost, haunting and oppressing contemporary minds rather than guiding them. Through readings of canonical works by authors including Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, and Mary Shelley, Spectres of Antiquity argues that these authors’ ghostly plots and ideas preserve the remembered traces of Greece and Rome. In comprehensive detail, Spectres of Antiquity rewrites the history of the Gothic, demonstrating that the genre was haunted by a far deeper sense of history than readers had previously assumed

Ancient history · Art · Late Antiquity · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Philosophy · Classical influences · English literature · Gothic fiction (Literary genre), English · History and criticism · Littérature anglaise

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