Research Catalog

Title

The rural gothic in American popular culture : backwoods horror and terror in the wilderness / Bernice M. Murphy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Author

Murphy, Bernice M.

Publication

Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

vii, 257 pages; 23 cm

Summary

"From the very beginnings of an independent literary culture, the North American wilderness has often served as the setting for narratives in which the boundaries between order and chaos, savagery and civilization are torn down, and the natural world - as well as the individuals and creatures associated with it - becomes a threat to physical and moral safety. The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture argues that complex and often negative initial responses early European settlers expressed toward the North American Wilderness continue to influence American horror and gothic narratives to this day. The book undertakes a detailed and historically grounded analysis of key literary and filmic texts. The works of canonical authors such as Mary Rowlandson, Charles Brockden Brown and Nathaniel Hawthorne are discussed, as are the origins and characteristics of the backwoods horror film tradition and the post-1960 eco-horror narrative"--

Alternative Title

Backwoods horror and terror in the wilderness

Subject

• Horror tales, American > History and criticism
• Gothic fiction (Literary genre), American > History and criticism
• Horror films > United States > History and criticism
• Rural conditions in literature
• Sparsely populated areas in popular culture > United States
• Nature in popular culture > United States
• LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General
• PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism
• SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture
• SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies
• Horrorroman
• Horrorfilm
• Gothic novel
• Wildnis
• Gothic fiction (Literary genre), American
• Horror films
• Horror tales, American
• Nature in popular culture
• Sparsely populated areas in popular culture
• Horror tales, American > History and criticism
• Gothic fiction > History and criticism
• Horror films > United States > History and criticism
• Wilderness areas in literature
• Skräckfilm > Förenta staterna
• USA

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 238-245) and index.
• Includes filmography (pages 246-247)

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction: We're not out of the woods yet -- The cabin in the woods : order versus chaos in the 'new world' -- 'We are but a little way in the forest yet ' : the community in the wilderness -- 'Going Windigo' : 'civilisation' and 'savagery' on the new frontier -- Backwoods nightmares : the rural poor as monstrous other -- 'Why wouldn't the wilderness fight us?' : eco-horror and the apocalypse.

ISBN

• 9781137353719
• 1137353716

LCCN

^^2013041787

OCLC

• 852224711
• SCSB-10924895

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library