Gothic fiction and the writing of trauma, 1914-1934 : the ghosts of World War One / Andrew Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Andrew, 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Gothic fiction (Literary genre), English.

World War, 1914-1918--Literature and the war.

World War, 1914-1918.

Supernatural in literature.

English fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (222 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2022.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This book examines how the representation of the ghost-soldier in literature published between 1914-1934, both marks the presence of trauma and attempts to make sense of it. Andrew Smith examines short stories, novels, poems and memoirs that employ ghosts to reflect upon feelings of loss, paralleling the literary context with accounts of shell-shock which construe the damaged soldier as psychologically missing and therefore spectre-like. The author argues that literary and non-literary texts repeatedly deploy a form of the uncanny, familiar from a Gothic tradition, as a way of reflecting upon grief. In support of this claim, he draws on fiction by well-known authors such as M. R. James, E. F. Benson, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Dennis Wheatley, alongside largely forgotten contributions to The Strand and other periodical publications such as The Occult Review.

Contents:

Introduction: The Ghosts of War

1 The Psychology of War: Gothic and the Redirection of the Uncanny

2 The Ghosts of War: Writing Trauma

3 Spiritualism, War and the Modernist Gothic

4 Aftershock: Malevolent Ghosts and the Problem of Memory

Conclusion: Ghostly Afterlives

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on October 20, 2023).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781474443463

147444346X

9781474443456

1474443451

OCLC:

1336532974