The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the Fin de Siècle

This book accounts for the resurgence of Gothic, and its immense popularity, during the British fin de siecle. In particular, Kelly Hurley explores a key scenario that haunts the genre: the loss of a unified and stable human identity, and the emergence of a chaotic and transformative "abhuman" identity in its place. Gothic is revealed as a highly productive and speculative genre, strongly indebted to nineteenth-century scientific, medical and social theories, including evolutionism, criminal anthropology and degeneration theory.

• Author
• Kelly Hurley

• Format
• hardcover

• Pages
• 203

• Series
• Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture

• Publisher
• Cambridge University Press

• Language
• english

• ISBN
• 9780521552592

• Genres
• gothic, victorian, horror, philosophy, criticism, theory, sexuality

• Release date
• 1996