The Forest and the EcoGothic

This book offers the first full length study on the pervasive archetype of The Gothic Forest in Western culture. The idea of the forest as deep, dark, and dangerous has an extensive history and continues to resonate throughout contemporary popular culture. The Forest and the EcoGothic examines both why we fear the forest and how exactly these fears manifest in our stories. It draws on and furthers the nascent field of the ecoGothic, which seeks to explore the intersections between ecocriticism and Gothic studies. In the age of the Anthropocene, this work importantly interrogates our relationship to and understandings of the more-than-human world. This work introduces the trope of the Gothic forest, as well as important critical contexts for its discussion, and examines the three main ways in which this trope manifests: as a living, animated threat; as a traditional habitat for monsters; and as a dangerous site for human settlement. This book will appeal to students and scholars with interests in horror and the Gothic, ecohorror and the ecoGothic, environmentalism, ecocriticism, and popular culture more broadly. The accessibility of the subject of 'The Deep Dark Woods', coupled with increasingly mainstream interests in interactions between humanity and nature, means this work will also be of keen interest to the general public.

Provides the first full-length study on the archetypal symbol of the Gothic forest, an often overlooked area of literary criticism Looks in detail at 'the ecoGothic', an increasingly relevant field of research which seeks to examine the intersection between ecocriticism and Gothic studies Examines a varied cross-section of key titles in literature and film in order to explore the significance and resonance of the enduringly ubiquitous Gothic environment

Auteur
Elizabeth Parker has lectured in English Literature and Popular Culture at a number of universities across the UK and Ireland. She is the founding editor of the journal Gothic Nature: New Directions in Ecohorror and the EcoGothic. Her research interests include the intersections between popular culture, horror, the Gothic, and the environmental humanities.

Résumé

"Comprehensive in its scope and very well structured, the six parts of the book make for a thorough guide through our fears of forests. ... Parker guides her reader with obvious pleasure through her book, making us enjoy the threat of the forest 'closing like a pair of jaws,' as Angela Carter once memorably put it, around us." (Annemarie Mönch, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 31 (3), 2020)

Contenu

Chapter 1: Theorising the Forest: Approaching a Dark Ecology.- Chapter 2: 'What if it's the Trees?': The Animated Forest.- Chapter 3: Where the Wild Things Are: Monsters in the Forest.- Chapter 4: 'It isn't Right to Build so Close to the Woods': Humans in the Forest.- Conclusion.