Degeneration, Normativity and the Gothic at the Fin de Siècle / Stephan Karschay.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Karschay, Stephan, 1980-

Series:

Palgrave studies in nineteenth-century writing and culture

Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Gothic fiction (Literary genre), English.

Literature and science--History and criticism.

Literature and science.

Degeneration in literature.

English fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

ix, 295 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Summary:

"This exciting new study looks at figures of degeneration and deviance in nineteenth-century science and late-Victorian Gothic fiction. The questions it raises are as relevant today as they were at the nineteenth century's fin de siècle: What constitutes the norm from which a deviation has occurred? When is a variation of the norm pronounced enough to qualify as 'pathological'? What exactly does it mean to be 'normal' or 'abnormal', and what happens if individuals find themselves on the 'wrong' side of the divide? Stephan Karschay addresses these questions through extensive readings of works by scientists such as Darwin, Lombroso, Maudsley, and Krafft-Ebing, and the most famous Gothic novels of R. L. Stevenson, Arthur Machen, Bram Stoker, Richard Marsh, Oscar Wilde and Marie Corelli"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note:

Acknowledgements1.Introduction2.Degeneration and the Victorian Sciences3.Detecting the Degenerate: Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan4.Othering the Degenerate: Bram Stoker's Dracula and Richard Marsh's The Beetle5.Normalising the Degenerate: Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Marie Corelli's The Sorrows of Satan6.ConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781137450326

1137450320

OCLC:

890756968