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Gothic Dissections in Film and Literature
The Body in Parts
by Ian Conrich and Laura Sedgwick
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Book Presentation:
This is the first book-length study to systematically and theoretically analyse the use and representation of individual body parts in Gothic fiction. Moving between filmic and literary texts and across the body―from the brain, hair and teeth, to hands, skin and the stomach―this book engages in unique readings by foregrounding a diversity of global representations. Building on scholarly work on the ‘Gothic body’ and ‘body horror’, Gothic Dissections in Film and Literature dissects the individual features that comprise the physical human corporeal form in its different functions. This very original and accessible study, which will appeal to a broad range of readers interested in the Gothic, centralises the use (and abuse) of limbs, organs, bones and appendages. It presents a set of unique global examinations; from Brazil, France and South Korea to name a few; that address the materiality of the Gothic body in depth in texts ranging from the nineteenth century to the present; fromNikolai Gogol, Edgar Allan Poe, Roald Dahl and Chuck Palahniuk, to David Cronenberg, Freddy Krueger and The Greasy Strangler.
About the authors:
Ian Conrich is Honorary Fellow at the University of Vienna, Austria. He is an author or editor of fourteen books, including Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror Cinema (2009) and The Cinema of John Carpenter: The Technique of Terror (2005).Laura Sedgwick is studying for a PhD in Film and Gothic Studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland. She is co-editor of ‘Islands and Film’, a special issue of the journal Post Script.
Press Reviews:
"Gothic Dissections offers a unique and captivating approach to the gothic. The essays not only uncannily mirror the gothic in their focus on body parts, they also provide a salient and seductive exploration of the abject nature of the gothic. Fascinating, erudite and entertaining, Gothic Dissections is a must for fans of the dark side of film, literature and the corporeal." (Barbara Creed, University of Melbourne, Australia)
"The range of this book ― across literature, film and television ― is truly extraordinary. An excellent addition to the literature on Gothic physicality, and one well informed by the necessary scientific and medical knowledge." (David Punter, University of Bristol, UK)
"A masterly and compelling autopsy of text and film, with cutting edge approaches to the Gothic corporeal."(Marie Mulvey-Roberts, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK)
"This is a wonderful book, one that fills a longstanding gap in horror and Gothic studies. A thumpinggood read for a dark and stormy night." (Joan Hawkins, Indiana University Bloomington, USA)
"Meticulously researched and well written, Gothic Dissections is a deliberate act of dismemberment and rich combinations." (Gina Wisker, University of Brighton, UK)
"A thrilling dissective approach to the Gothic. Readers will prize the dizzying range of body parts on display." (Laurence Talairach-Vielmas, University of Toulouse II, France)
"Gothic Dissections is as lively as it is systematic and comprehensive. The first to analyse Gothic culture from the perspective of the body’s anatomical features, the book spans a splendid range of disciplinary perspectives and media and cultural forms." (Linda Badley, Middle Tennessee State University, USA)
"The body under investigation here is not the monolithic and integrated ‘Gothic body’ of earlier scholarship but the torn and dismembered body of the autopsy table; the authors’ critical attention as exacting as the process of anatomical dissection itself." (Dale Townshend, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
See the publisher website: Palgrave MacMillan
> From the same authors:
The Cinema of John Carpenter (2005)
The Technique of Terror
Dir. Ian Conrich and David Woods
Subject: Director > John Carpenter
> On a related topic:
Agatha Christie and Gothic Horror (2024)
Adaptations and Televisuality
The Blaxploitation Horror Film (2023)
Adaptation, Appropriation and the Gothic
Screening the Gothic in Australia and New Zealand (2022)
Contemporary Antipodean Film and Television
Dir. Jessica Gildersleeve and Kate Cantrell
Nordic Gothic (2022)
by Maria Holmgren Troy, Johan Höglund, Yvonne Leffler and Sofia Wijkmark
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