Terror and wonder : the gothic imagination /
Townshend, Dale.
London : British Library,
2014.
The Gothic imagination, that dark predilection for horrors and terrors, spectres and sprites, occupies a prominent place in contemporary Western culture. First given fictional expression in Horace Walpole's 'The Castle of Otranto' of 1764, the Gothic mode has continued to haunt literature, fine art, music, film and fashion ever since its heyday in Britain in the 1790s. This book, which accompanies a major exhibition at the British Library, is a collection of essays that trace the numerous meanings and manifestations of the Gothic across time, tracking its prominent shifts and mutations from its eighteenth-century origins, through the Victorian period, and into the present day. Edited and introduced by Dale Townshend, and consisting of original contributions by Nick Groom, Angela Wright, Alexandra Warwick, Andrew Smith, Lucie Armitt and Catherine Spooner, this book provides a compelling and comprehensive overview of the Gothic imagination over the past 250 years.
Published on the occasion of the British Library exhibition of the same name 3 October 2014 - 20 January 2015.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: terror and wonder; the gothic imagination / Dale Townshend -- Gothic antiquity: from the sack of Rome to the castle of Otranto / Nick Groom -- Gothic, 1764-1820 / Angela Wright -- Gothic, 1820-1880 / Angela Wright -- Gothic and the Victorian fin de siècle, 1880-1900 / Andrew Smith -- Twentieth-century gothic / Lucie Armitt -- Twenty-first-century gothic / Catherine Spooner -- Photographing goths: Martin Parr at the Whitby goth weekend / Martin Parr.
The Gothic imagination, that dark predilection for horrors and terrors, spectres and sprites, occupies a prominent place in contemporary Western culture. First given fictional expression in Horace Walpole's 'The Castle of Otranto' of 1764, the Gothic mode has continued to haunt literature, fine art, music, film and fashion ever since its heyday in Britain in the 1790s. This book, which accompanies a major exhibition at the British Library, is a collection of essays that trace the numerous meanings and manifestations of the Gothic across time, tracking its prominent shifts and mutations from its eighteenth-century origins, through the Victorian period, and into the present day. Edited and introduced by Dale Townshend, and consisting of original contributions by Nick Groom, Angela Wright, Alexandra Warwick, Andrew Smith, Lucie Armitt and Catherine Spooner, this book provides a compelling and comprehensive overview of the Gothic imagination over the past 250 years.
Art, Gothic