Introduction

Abstract

Simon Bacon Introduction What is the Gothic? The ingredients of the Gothic have been characterized as ‘decaying Gothic castles, ruined chapels, underground passages, dark forests and ghostly groanings’ and as ‘[s]hocks, supernatural incidents and superstitious beliefs’, all of which ‘promote a sense of sublime awe and wonder […] entwined with fear and elevated imaginations’ (Botting 1996: 29, 46). The need to shock, jolt, unnerve, or even produce awe is at the core of the Gothic in its many forms, from the pre-Victorian era to the present day - and beyond. This volume offers an introductory roadmap to the Gothic, exploring the many areas, sub-genres, mediums, and modalities associated with the concept. Not merely a genre on its own, the Gothic haunts and intersects with many other genres. The influence of the Gothic changes the way in which one can read or interact with any text, bringing to it a Gothic lens through which one can view and interpret the text anew.1 In this sense, the Gothic can also be considered as a modality in that it creates a very particular kind of engagement with a medium - for example, film, gaming, and comics - which produce very different expressions of the Gothic while still referencing core themes and tropes. The Uncanny At the core of the readings of the Gothic in this book is the concept of the uncanny. Although it is not the only core….