Nightmare on Main Street
Subtitle: angels, sadomasochism, and the culture of Gothic
By: Mark Edmundson.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 190
Subjects: Horror tales, American -- History and criticism; Gothic revival (Literature) -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Popular culture -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Horror films -- United States -- History and criticism; Sadomasochism in literature; Angels in literature
Description: In an assessment of American culture on the eve of the millennium, Mark Edmundson asks why we're determined to be haunted, courting the Gothic at every turn - and, at the same time, committed to escape through any new scheme for ready-made transcendence.

Nightmare on Main Street depicts a culture suffused in the Gothic, not just in novels and films but even in the nonfictive realms of politics and academic theories, TV news and talk shows, various therapies, and discourses on AIDS and the environment. What, Edmundson asks, does the ascendancy of the Gothic in the 1990s tell us about our own day?

And what of another trend, seemingly unrelated - the widespread belief that re-creating oneself is as easy as making a wish? Looking at the world according to Forrest Gump, Edmundson shows how this parallel culture actually works reciprocally with the Gothic.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [181]-186) and index.