Post-Millennial Gothic: Comedy, Romance and the Rise of Happy Gothic

About the Author

Catherine Spooner is Professor of Literature and Culture at Lancaster University, UK. She is co-editor (with Emma McEvoy) of The Routledge Companion to Gothic (2007) and author of Post-Millennial Gothic (2017), Contemporary Gothic (2006) and Fashioning Gothic Bodies (2004).

Product Description

Surveying the widespread appropriations of the Gothic in contemporary literature and culture, Post-Millennial Gothic shows contemporary Gothic is often romantic, funny and celebratory. Reading a wide range of popular texts, from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series through Tim Burton's Gothic film adaptations of Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows, to the appearance of Gothic in fashion, advertising and television, Catherine Spooner argues that conventional academic and media accounts of Gothic culture have overlooked this celebratory strain of 'Happy Gothic'.

Identifying a shift in subcultural sensibilities following media coverage of the Columbine shootings, Spooner suggests that changing perceptions of Goth subculture have shaped the development of 21st-century Gothic. Reading these contemporary trends back into their sources, Spooner also explores how they serve to highlight previously neglected strands of comedy and romance in earlier Gothic literature.

Review

“The range of sources that Spooner uses to uncover this strand of Gothic and the work it’s doing in the twenty-first century is as impressive as the primary texts that she explores throughout the book.” - Romantic Circles

“Spooner is especially persuasive in her argument that the rise in the fusion of comedy and Gothic needs not to be viewed as on the fringes of what is quintessentially Gothic, but rather a turn toward a new form of Gothic altogether … Spooner’s writing style, as well as her intriguing references and anecdotes, provides for a very enjoyable and accessible read―for those inside and outside academia.” - The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts