Sexuality and the Gothic magic lantern : desire, eroticism and literary visibilities from Byron to Bram Stoker / David J. Jones.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jones, David J. (David James), 1953- author.

Series:

Palgrave gothic series

Palgrave gothic

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gothic fiction (Literary genre), English--History and criticism.

Gothic fiction (Literary genre), English.

Sex in literature.

Lantern slides.

Physical Description:

x, 254 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Summary:

This fascinating study explores the multifarious erotic themes associated with the magic lantern shows, which proved the dominant visual medium of the West for 250 years, and analyses how the shows influenced the portrayals of sexuality in major works of Gothic fiction. It offers vivid, new readings of works as varied as Charlotte Brontë's Villette and Bram Stoker's Dracula, and even uses clues suggested by magic lantern references to discover the meaning of the amorous entanglement described in the last extant stanzas of Byron's Don Juan. In this, the first book-length consideration of the erotic associations connected with lantern shows, Jones reinstates the lanterns' importance for past generations in their visualisation and expression of diverse sexualities and argues that an understanding of these influences serves fundamentally to change our reading of Gothic literature. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Sex and the Ghost Show: The Early Ghost Lanternists 32

2 Byron: Incest, Voyeurism and the Phantasmagoria 71

3 Brontë's Villette: Desire and Lanternicity in the Domestic Gothic 109

4 Le Fanu's Carmilla: Lesbian Desire in the Lanternist Novella 142

5 Lanternist Codes and Sexuality in Dracula and The Lady of the Shroud 169.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-246) and index.

ISBN:

113729891X

9781137298911

OCLC:

871646916