Clive Bloom's Gothic Histories

Here's the start of our reading list. Clive Bloom's Gothic Histories: The Taste for Terror, 1764 to the Present (2010) is an interesting little book that has been both praised and pilloried. The book covers a lot of ground (usually very quickly), and, while it is hard to discern the intended audience, there are some useful nuggets to be found within.

The following details are from the publisher's website:

Gothic Histories: The Taste for Terror, 1764 to the Present

By: Clive Bloom

Published: 06-06-2010
Format: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 224
ISBN: 9781847060518
Imprint: Continuum
Dimensions: 5" x 7 3/4"
RRP: $24.95

About Gothic Histories

In the middle of the eighteenth century the Gothic became the universal language of architecture, painting and literature, expressing a love not only of ruins, decay and medieval pageantry, but also the drug-induced monsters of the mind.

By explaining the international dimension of Gothicism and dealing in detail with German, French and American authors, Gothic Histories demonstrates the development of the genre in every area of art and includes original research on Gothic theatre, spiritualism, ‘ghost seeing' and spirit photography and the central impact of penny-dreadful writers on the genre, while also including a host of forgotten or ignored authors and their biographies.

Gothic Histories is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Gothic and its literary double, the horror genre, leading the reader from their origins in the haunted landscapes of the Romantics through Frankenstein and Dracula to the very different worlds of Hannibal Lecter and Goth culture. Comprehensive and up-to-date, it is a fascinating guide to the Gothic and horror in film, fiction and popular culture.


Table Of Contents

Acknowledgements
1.Now Welcome the Night: The Origins of Gothic Culture
2. Every True Goth: From Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill to Thomas De Quincey' Opium Dreams
3. With Raven Wings: Ann Radcliffe, German Horrors ands the Divine Marquis
4. Land of Shadows: Melmoth the Wanderer and Sweeney Todd
5. Dark Reflections in a Dull Mirror: Fuseli's ‘The Nightmare' and the Origins of Gothic Theatre
6. Desire and Loathing Strangely Mixed: Gothic Melodrama and The Phantom of the Opera
7. Do You See It? The Gothic and the Ghostly
8. It's Alive: The Rise of the Gothic Movie
9. After Midnight: Goth Culture, Vampire Games and the Irresistible Rise of Twilight
Further Selected Readings in the Gothic
Index


About the author:

Clive Bloom is Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at Middlesex University, UK. He currently teaches at both New York University and the University of Notre Dame. He has written many books on popular culture, cultural history and literary criticism, regularly appears on radio and television and contributes to a number of national newspapers.

Useful reviews include the following:

Franklin, Caroline. HistoryExtra.com: The Official Website of BBC History Magazine 1 July 2010. Web. http://www.historyextra.com/book-review/gothic-histories-taste-terror-1764-present

Mackley, Jon. Literary London: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Representation of London 8.2 (September 2010). Web. http://www.literarylondon.org/london-journal/september2010/mackley2.html

Reyes, Xavier Aldana. The Gothic Imagination 3 June 2011. Web. http://www.gothic.stir.ac.uk/blog/clive-bloom-gothic-histories-the-taste-for-terror/

Rogers, Deborah D. Times Higher Education 20 May 2010. Web. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/411634.article