German Gothic Literature

This is a very informative book that not only provides a starting point for students and researchers of Gothic Studies interested in the variations and adaptations within the German tradition, but it also serves as a primer for Germanists interested in establishing––or reevaluating––the place of the Gothic in German literary and cultural history.

This collection not only provides a starting point for students and researchers of Gothic Studies interested in the variations and adaptations within the German tradition, but it also serves as a primer for Germanists interested in establishing––or reevaluating––the place of the Gothic in German literary and cultural history.

The volume is organized chronologically in three parts that pursue a broader organizational trajectory, articulate the common genre characteristics, destabilize boundaries and emphasize socio-artistic ruptures, while establishing the place of German cultural output within the framework of the Anglo-German gothic phenomenon. Furthermore, the volume distinguishes itself through a focus on the evolution from these early texts through the adaptations and original contributions by authors of early nineteenth-century romantic narratives of the unexplained in prose and verse, emphasizing the evolution of forms both within and beyond the oeuvres of individual authors, generations and movements. The second wave of German Gothic features the rise of the fairy tale, folklore, collections of ghost stories, entertainment literature, philosophical treatises and literary journals through the neo-romantic works of the turn of the twentieth century. The volume concludes with reevaluations of the German canon and explorations of global responses, expanding the research focus to encompass the transmedial productions of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, including popular novellas, horror cinema, prestige television and indie and mainstream video games.