The Forest and the EcoGothic
The Deep Dark Woods in the Popular Imagination
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Beschreibung
‘This is a rigorously researched, wide-ranging and original study with international reach and significance. It makes a very important contribution to the Gothic field.’
– Catherine Wynne, Reader in English, University of Hull
‘I could not recommend this book more strongly. It is truly exceptional: thoroughly researched, effectively structured, convincingly argued, containing always-insightful readings of a dizzying array of film and fiction, and beautifully written. This is ground-breaking, important work.’
– Dawn Keetley, Professor of English, Lehigh University
This book offers the first full length study on the pervasive archetype of The Gothic Forest in Western culture. The idea of the forest as deep, dark, and dangerous has an extensive history and continues to resonate throughout contemporary popular culture. The Forest and the EcoGothic examines both why we fear the forest and how exactly these fears manifest in our stories. It draws on and furthers the nascent field of the ecoGothic, which seeks to explore the intersections between ecocriticism and Gothic studies. In the age of the Anthropocene, this work importantly interrogates our relationship to and understandings of the more-than-human world. This work introduces the trope of the Gothic forest, as well as important critical contexts for its discussion, and examines the three main ways in which this trope manifests: as a living, animated threat; as a traditional habitat for monsters; and as a dangerous site for human settlement. This book will appeal to students and scholars with interests in horror and the Gothic, ecohorror and the ecoGothic, environmentalism, ecocriticism, and popular culture more broadly. The accessibility of the subject of ‘The Deep Dark Woods’, coupled with increasingly mainstream interests in interactions between humanity and nature, means this work will also be of keen interest to the general public.
This book offers the first full length study on the pervasive archetype of The Gothic Forest in Western culture. The idea of the forest as deep, dark, and dangerous has an extensive history and continues to resonate throughout contemporary popular culture. The Forest and the EcoGothic examines both why we fear the forest and how exactly these fears manifest in our stories. It draws on and furthers the nascent field of the ecoGothic, which seeks to explore the intersections between ecocriticism and Gothic studies. In the age of the Anthropocene, this work importantly interrogates our relationship to and understandings of the more-than-human world. This work introduces the trope of the Gothic forest, as well as important critical contexts for its discussion, and examines the three main ways in which this trope manifests: as a living, animated threat; as a traditional habitat for monsters; and as a dangerous site for human settlement. This book will appeal to students and scholars with interests in horror and the Gothic, ecohorror and the ecoGothic, environmentalism, ecocriticism, and popular culture more broadly. The accessibility of the subject of ‘The Deep Dark Woods’, coupled with increasingly mainstream interests in interactions between humanity and nature, means this work will also be of keen interest to the general public.
Provides the first full-length study on the archetypal symbol of the Gothic forest, an often overlooked area of literary criticism Looks in detail at ‘the ecoGothic’, an increasingly relevant field of research which seeks to examine the intersection between ecocriticism and Gothic studies Examines a varied cross-section of key titles in literature and film in order to explore the significance and resonance of the enduringly ubiquitous Gothic environment
Autor*in
Elizabeth Parker
Themen in »The Forest and the EcoGothic«
Forests Ecocriticism Gothic Horror EcoGothic Popular Culture
Stimmen zu »The Forest and the EcoGothic«
“Comprehensive in its scope and very well structured, the six parts of the book make for a thorough guide through our fears of forests. … Parker guides her reader with obvious pleasure through her book, making us enjoy the threat of the forest ‘closing like a pair of jaws,’ as Angela Carter once memorably put it, around us.” (Annemarie Mönch, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 31 (3), 2020)
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“Elizabeth Parker’s exploration of the ecoGothic, channelled through the case study of the Gothic forest, is an enchanting and unnerving foray into the woods. The Forest and the EcoGothic is essential reading for any scholar working with the ‘flavoured mode’ (p. 33) of the ecoGothic, as Parker unravels arguments pertaining to ecophobia and Gothic Nature … Parker’s reverence for the power of symbolism to induce monstrous re-enchantment is one of the core strengths of her writing.” (Jemma Stewart, The Dark Arts Journal)
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