Comic Gothic
An Edinburgh Companion
Edited by Avril Horner, Sue Zlosnik
Extends the body of scholarship on Comic Gothic to cover contemporary texts, new media and texts from other cultures
- Awarded 2025 Outstanding Academic Title by Choice
- Revisits classic Gothic figures such as the vampire, and foundational Gothic writers such as Horace Walpole, in order to examine the role of comedy in early formations of the Gothic
- Offers fresh readings of classic and recent Gothic texts from different cultures
- Offers analyses of Comic Gothic in the visual domain, including film, television and social media
- Brings together important work on Comic Gothic in order to assess its place in the realms of culture, social interaction and politics
The Edinburgh Companion to Comic Gothic explores the role of irony, satire, parody, pastiche and the absurd in Gothic texts dating from the eighteenth century up to the present day. Its particular focus on the use of Comic Gothic in social media and popular culture make it a distinctive and original contribution to Gothic studies that will be especially welcomed by undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Introduction
Part One: From 1740 to the Mid Nineteenth Century
Part Two: From the 1890s to the Twenty-first Century
Part Three: Comic Gothic and the New Millennium
The Gothic has to do with the dark, but ever since the days of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey it has also had its comic side, revelling in exaggeration, melodrama, pastiche, satire and the absurd, as this brilliant collection of essays demonstrates across a satisfyingly wide range of periods and styles.
Clear and comprehensive, Comic Gothic builds on Horner and Zlosnik’s Gothic and the Comic Turn, which examined the Gothic’s disruptions of fear and horror by situations rife with comic potential. Comic Gothic not only features a historical sweep from the 18th to 21st centuries but also expands its scope to include essays on American, Canadian, Indian, New Zealander, Thai, and Jewish Gothic modes. [...] Overall, this collection offers readers many fascinating points of entry into the comedic affect of a genre typically presented through the affects of horror and fear.
Summing Up: Highly recommended.
