For my FYP presentation i will be looking at the journal article by Teresa A. Goddu called Vampire Gothic taken from The American Literary History 1999. ( I emailed the article to everyone, also anyone that took the gothic module last year might be familiar with it.)
The general theme of the journal extract is relevant to my fyp in many ways and is one of the main critical sources i am looking at. Goddu looks at 3 main critical texts in the article and examines each of their views on vampire and mainly gothic fiction as a whole.
Within the critical sources the article looks at how the authors percieve representations of various American anxieties in gothic fiction ranging from 19th century England to contemporary America (keeping in mind it was published in 1999 so just before 21st century) And creates an argument for representations of tourism, gender, sexuality, race, disease, religion and tries to form some sort of idea of what is really meant for the term "otherness" within the gothic fiction. These are pretty much all of the themes i am looking into in my own fyp so this article does provide a good basis on the sort of things i should be examining and how to treat them. It is also interesting to see how other critics view the adaption of the Gothic as time progresses which is another key point i am focusing on in my fyp.
Goddu is good at examining the other critics and showing whether she agrees or disagrees with what they are saying. But she also gives her own critical view of the gothic which is how the article finishes.
When looking at the article some questions to think about could be:
From what you know about contemporary gothic, do you think that the focus is on gender and sexuality and therefore misses out on the subtext of race and class?
Do you think the gothic demonizes or stereotypes racial identities, specifically African American?
Would you agree that the gothic is a travelling form and therefore monsters become culturally or regionally specific?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
A very interesting article! - I found this particularly useful since I'm not that well informed about vampires, to actually take on board what vampires can represent and to be reminded of their 'journey.'
ReplyDeleteI must admit, not having really watched the likes of True Blood or Buffy, etc, that my view of the contemporary gothic may be limited but from what I can gather the main focus is on gender and sexuality. I think the titillation of fear/attraction is the main 'hook' but I think there are also subplots of face and class there as a subtext which I don't think is missed out at all.
This is very true where African Americans are concerned; film and TV in the form of Hollywood and the main networks still seem to have stereotype issues - I could be wrong, but is there a vampire/monster narrative where a black American is the hero and isn't the monster or victim? In Southern culture with a history/culture of slave uprising and black sexuality, it is no doubt even stronger. Even in 'Beloved' although Beloved (slavery if you will) makes Sethe come to terms with her past, she comes across as a traditionally vampyric and parasitical.
I do think that the gothic is a traveling form as one of the writers said in this piece, that an area, a region can make their own monster, their own fear, depending on their culture and also what is going on socially and politically within that culture.
Sorry this so late (I nearly forgot).
ReplyDeleteLoved the presentation Rich - especially as I'm a True Blood fan. Notwithstanding that I'm pretty ignorant on the gothic but don't agree with Goddu's view of the 'gothic as a constantly moving form with no fixed abode'. Each form seems to be very much fixed in the context of time and place. True Blood is very much an American form reflecting very U.S. mainstream cultural and political issues (race and sexuality being high on the list). Also, having just read Morrison's 'Beloved', I don't read the character as vampiric. Beloved is more of a slave narrative than a gothic text and the Beloved character appears deliberately ambiguous in form and motive - resonating the past, not the present.
Sorry for the delay in commenting. I found it to be informing and enlightening as my knowledge of Gothic genres is very limited. It can be seen that the vampire can represent the outsider in American culture through not only a racial perspective as shown with African Americans, but also through class and gender. The idea that African Americans are represented as the "evil" in many gothic texts still persists to this day. It can also be seen that the monster is culturally and regionally specific; each culture can create a villain which represents contemporary fears and anxieties.
ReplyDelete