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Friday, May 23, 2008
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Gothic Quest...
...is my personal exploration of the Gothic genre in literature and film. Join me on an adventurous journey into shadowy realms in search of the uncanny, the speculative, the horrific, the dark, the haunting, the suspenseful, the sexually erotic, the horrifying, the grotesque, the macabre, the thrilling, the psychologically chilling... This blog is a continuing, if sporadic, record of my past or present reflections upon reading or viewing themes in the Gothic mode.
__________
I majored in British and American Literature with a minor concentration on the Gothic genre and its historical devlopment as an outgrowth of the Romantic Movement. I've been an enthusiast of quality horror literature since that time, over thirty years. Motifs of particular interest to me are: stories of The Other, or Doubles (the doppelgänger); tales of haunted houses; and really good ghost stories. I'm quite taken with the grotesque flavor of Southern Gothic--and such authors as Flannery O'Connor, Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty. Although I enjoy dark, scarey novels (and even poetry and plays) my favored formats are the novella and short story. I enjoy quality horror films as well--not blood and gore slasher B-movies (although they're important, too, from a horror film historical perspective)--but films of such notable caliber as Hitchcock's Psycho (1960, based upon the equally superb 1959 novel by Robert Bloch) and Rebecca (1940, based on Daphne du Maurier's 1938 excellent novel). Incidentally, Du Maurier's 1951 novel, My Cousin Rachel, is a fine psychological dark tale of mystery and her 1952 short story, "The Birds" was the basis for Hitchcock's 1963 film of the same title.
I continue to read non-fiction critical studies on Gothic literature (Jack Sullivan, David Punter, Richard Davenport-Hines, etc.) and have found myself going back and re-reading some of the classic horror tales with new perspectives. I am fond of too many authors in the field to name "favorites" but certainly among them are: Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood, Wilkie Collins, Sheridan Le Fanu, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Joseph Conrad. When asked the scariest novel I've ever read my answer without hesitation is Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker and I usually add, the best psychological ghost story ever written is "The Turn of the Screw" (1898) by Henry James. Some current contemporary writers in the horror field whom I enjoy: Dan Simmons, Ramsey Campbell, Joyce Carol Oates, and Patrick McGrath--to name but a few. Fight Club, both the Palahniuk novel (1996) and the film version (1999), is a particularly curious doppelgänger tale that appeals to me despite its violence, which is fundamental to its theme and social commentary.
__________
I majored in British and American Literature with a minor concentration on the Gothic genre and its historical devlopment as an outgrowth of the Romantic Movement. I've been an enthusiast of quality horror literature since that time, over thirty years. Motifs of particular interest to me are: stories of The Other, or Doubles (the doppelgänger); tales of haunted houses; and really good ghost stories. I'm quite taken with the grotesque flavor of Southern Gothic--and such authors as Flannery O'Connor, Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty. Although I enjoy dark, scarey novels (and even poetry and plays) my favored formats are the novella and short story. I enjoy quality horror films as well--not blood and gore slasher B-movies (although they're important, too, from a horror film historical perspective)--but films of such notable caliber as Hitchcock's Psycho (1960, based upon the equally superb 1959 novel by Robert Bloch) and Rebecca (1940, based on Daphne du Maurier's 1938 excellent novel). Incidentally, Du Maurier's 1951 novel, My Cousin Rachel, is a fine psychological dark tale of mystery and her 1952 short story, "The Birds" was the basis for Hitchcock's 1963 film of the same title.
I continue to read non-fiction critical studies on Gothic literature (Jack Sullivan, David Punter, Richard Davenport-Hines, etc.) and have found myself going back and re-reading some of the classic horror tales with new perspectives. I am fond of too many authors in the field to name "favorites" but certainly among them are: Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood, Wilkie Collins, Sheridan Le Fanu, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Joseph Conrad. When asked the scariest novel I've ever read my answer without hesitation is Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker and I usually add, the best psychological ghost story ever written is "The Turn of the Screw" (1898) by Henry James. Some current contemporary writers in the horror field whom I enjoy: Dan Simmons, Ramsey Campbell, Joyce Carol Oates, and Patrick McGrath--to name but a few. Fight Club, both the Palahniuk novel (1996) and the film version (1999), is a particularly curious doppelgänger tale that appeals to me despite its violence, which is fundamental to its theme and social commentary.
Blog Archive
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We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
—T.S. Eliot
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
—T.S. Eliot
Gothic Quest Host Is
Labels Index
- Anthologies (2)
- Authors (7)
- Collections (1)
- Critique (2)
- Doppelganger (2)
- Films (3)
- HITCHCOCK (1)
- Labels (1)
- Novels (3)
- Overview (2)
- poems (1)
- Resources (3)
- Reviews (2)
- Short Stories (4)
- Titles (7)
- VAL LEWTON (1)
Related Links
- 18th Century Gothic Fragments
- Ann Radcliffe
- Bibliomania
- Bram Stroker's Dracula Home Page
- Dark Side of the Net
- DarkEcho
- eBooks@Adelaide
- Gaslight eBooks & Discussion Group
- Ghosts & Scholars Archive
- Haunted Traveler
- Hellnotes
- Horror Asylum
- HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION
- Literary Gothic
- Macabre Cadaver Magazine
- My Hideous Progeny: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
- Noir of the Week
- Poppy Z. Brite Official Site
- Project Gutenberg
- Ramsey Campbell Homepage
- Readers' Guide to Works of Rudyard Kipling
- Resources for the Study of Gothic Literature
- The Cabinet
- The Ghost Stories of M. R. James
- The Gothic Imagination - Course Syllabi
- The Gothic Novel
- The Gothic: Materials for Study
- The Sickly Taper
- University of Virginia Scholars' Lab Text Archive
- Vampiri Europeana, Bibliography of Non-English European Resources on Vampires in Literature, Folklore, and Popular Culture
- Victorian Ghost Stories
- Wiki Project on Horror
- Zittaw Press Purveyors of the Trade Gothic
Film Favorites
- American Psycho (2000) Mary Harron
- Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991) Simon Callow
- Birds, The (1963) Alfred Hitchcock
- Burnt Offerings (1976) Dan Curtis
- Dracula's Daughter (1936) Lambert Hilyer
- Fight Club (1999) David Fincher
- Frankenstein (1931) James Whale
- Haunting in Connecticut, The (2009) Peter Cornmwell
- Hush... Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964) Robert Aldrich
- Night of the Living Dead (1968) George Romero
- Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
- Rebecca (1940) Alfred Hitchock
- Rosemary's Baby (1968) Roman Polanski
- The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin
- The Other (1972) Robert Mulligan
- The Wicker Man (1973) Robin Hardy
- Vertigo (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
- Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Robert Aldrich
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