Gothic literature

The "Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature" series' editors are Martin Halliwell and Andy Mousley.

This series provides accessible yet provocative introductions to a wide range of literatures.

The volumes will initiate and deepen the reader's understanding of key literary movements, periods and genres, and consider debates that inform the past, present and future of literary study.

Resources such as glossaries of key terms and details of archives and internet sites are also provided, making each volume a comprehensive critical guide. "Gothic Literature" is a book by Andrew Smith. This introductory study provides a thorough grounding in both the history of Gothic literature and the way in which Gothic texts have been (and can be) critically read.

The book opens with a chronology and an introduction to the principal texts and key critical terms, followed by four chapters: The Gothic Heyday 1760-1820; Gothic 1820-1865; Gothic Proximities 1865-1900; and Twentieth Century and After.

The discussion examines how the Gothic has developed in different national contexts and in different forms, including novels, novellas, plays, poems, and films.Each chapter concludes with a close reading of a specific text - "Frankenstein", "Jane Eyre", "Dracula" and "The Silence of the Lambs" - to illustrate the ways in which contextual discussion informs critical analysis.

The book ends with a conclusion outlining possible future developments within scholarship on the Gothic.

Its key features are: provides a single, comprehensive and accessible introduction to Gothic literature; offers a coherent account of the historical development of the Gothic in a range of literary and national contexts; introduces the ways in which critical theories of class, gender, race and national identity have been applied to Gothic texts; and, includes a list of essential resources and a guide to further reading.