Dark Cartographies: Exploring Gothic Spaces

Look into the dark mirror of the Gothic text and you will become aware of the strange and uncanny aspects of familiar spaces. The twelve chapters in this collection are enquiries into the nature of Gothic spatiality, exploring Gothic spaces from Italy to Cornwall to small-town USA, looking at Gothic locations like the London suburbs and a remote mining town in the Indian jungle, or Gothic buildings like the Paris opera, the haunted high-rise buildings of Finnish suburbia, or a semi-abandoned North-American motel. Reading Gothic spaces as reflections of various cultures, the contributors not only explore Gothic localities, which possess the potential to raise a number of critical questions, but also examine Gothic mind-sets like those evoked by enclosed, segregated, remote, lonely, haunted, strange or suddenly unfamiliar spaces. Bringing together a variety of critical perspectives, the collection will be of interest to academics and students interested in the Gothic, literary and cultural studies, film and media studies as well as creative writing and popular culture.