Abstract
At first glance, the landscapes that dominate Gothic texts may seem to be simply backdrops to the action of the fiction and film or the ruminations of the poetry. Crumbling architecture, dark confusing labyrinths, frightening interiors, and craggy outcroppings are just a few elements of landscape that make up the Gothic and help set the stage for what unfolds in Gothic texts. Rather than what Alan Lloyd-Smith calls “trappings as trivial stage machinery” (7), Gothic landscapes are actually central to these works, a means by which political, psychological, social, and cultural ideals are laid bare, transmitted, and often critiqued. Leslie Fiedler, David Punter, Fred Botting, and collections editors Charles L. Crow, and Monica Elbert and Bridget M. Marshall are among some of the scholars who have demonstrated that landscape in the Gothic is more than just a mere backdrop to the main action. As much as these scholars have furthered the study of landscape in the Gothic, there is much more that needs to be studied. Recent discussion of the Gothic in computer gaming, film, and in conveying the voices of marginalized people demonstrates not only that the Gothic is still thriving and open for interpretation but also that landscapes play an important part in that discussion. This collection of essays deepens current scholarship both by exploring how the Gothic’s interpenetration enriches other genres and by expanding the perception of landscape in the Gothic to include the social, psychological, and spiritual, as well as the geographic.
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Yang, S.R., Healey, K. (2016). Introduction: Haunted Landscapes and Fearful Spaces—Expanding Views on the Geography of the Gothic. In: Yang, S., Healey, K. (eds) Gothic Landscapes. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33165-2_1
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