European Gothic: A Spirited Exchange

Challenging the tyranny of the Anglo-American narratives that have dominated critical histories of the Gothic so far, this work argues that the Gothic novel did not simply derive from The Castle of Otranto , but that it has been found in the crucible of translation. Focussing on Gothic writing in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish, the collection charts a rich process of cross-fertilization and, in particular, examines the importance of Anglo-French exchanges in the development of the Gothic novel within Europe and, subsequently, the United States. Within this framework, and from a variety of critical perspectives, the 13 contributors re-assess the work of authors such as Clara Reeve, Sophia Lee, Charlotte Smith, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, Charles Maturin, Coleridge, Mary Shelley, Jan Potocki, Balzac, Dostoevsky, Gaston Leroux and Djuna Barnes. The volume thus offers a fresh way of thinking about Gothic lineages and histories.