Ghosts and the Gothic
Published on 16. September 2025
Book
Hardback
360 pages
978-1-5261-8192-3 (ISBN)
Description
Ghosts have long been connected with the Gothic, but until now there has not been a book dedicated to the subject. This collection examines ghostly presences (and absences) in both classic and lesser-known Gothic texts from the beginning of the genre to the present in a global context. Arguing that the undead, in the form of ghosts, are intrinsic to the Gothic mode, essays in the collection question the place of manifested spirits. The Gothic has always been 'political', and essays in this collection examine some of the most relevant issues facing us today: from the destruction of the natural environment, to questions of 'freedom', to gender politics. -- .
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Manchester
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
584 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5261-8192-3 (9781526181923)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Ruth Heholt | Joanne Ella Parsons
Ghosts and the Gothic
E-Book
09/2025
Manchester University Press
€132.99
Available for download
Persons
Ruth Heholt is Professor of Literature and Culture at Falmouth University
Joanne Ella Parsons is Senior Lecturer in English and Writing at Falmouth University -- .
Joanne Ella Parsons is Senior Lecturer in English and Writing at Falmouth University -- .
Content
Introduction: Ruth Heholt and Joanne Ella Parsons
Part I: Origins and histories
1 Speaking from beyond the grave: The many roles of ghosts in early modern English popular literature - Brendan Walsh
2 Unruly subjects: Apparitional property and spectral revenge in 'The Drummer of Tedworth' (1662-63) and its afterlives - Kirsten T. Saxton
3 'It is midnight, my wedded': Queer spectrality in the works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes - Joseph Crawford
4 Raising the Holy Ghost in the Gothic: Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights - Carol Margaret Davison
5 Ghostly knowing laughter: Comic Gothic in the works of W.S. Gilbert - Rebecca Lloyd
6 Queer spectres of the British Raj - Jamil Mustafa
7 Unsafe spaces: Coercion, control, and the domestic in the ghostly Gothic tales of E. Nesbit - Ruth Heholt
8 Navigating nautical timescapes: Ghosts and haunting in the Victorian and Edwardian maritime world - Karl Bell
Part II: The twentieth century and beyond
9 Dark London, alienation, and female vulnerability in the modernist ghost stories of Violet Hunt and Marie Belloc Lowndes - Emma Liggins
10 'The Companionship of the Dead': Benevolent ghosts in the Irish civil war stories of Dorothy Macardle - Melissa Edmundson
11 'An ill luck on the place': Industrial activity and the vengeful past in three ghost stories by L.T.C. Rolt - William Hughes
12 Cold War politics and spectral recycling: Andrew Klavan's The Uncanny - Andrew Smith
13 Lovely bones and settled scores: Contemporary women's interweaving of ghost and crime stories - Gina Wisker
14 Ghost time: spectral temporalities in Asian Gothic - Katarzyna Ancuta
15 Spectral photographs: Ghostly memories, trauma, and the haunted past in the MCU's Avengers franchise - Lorna Piatti-Farnell
16 Trauma and resilience and being Black in America: the ghosts in Mariama Diallo's Master (2022) and Margaret Brown's Descendant (2022) - Ardel Haefele-Thomas
Index -- .
Part I: Origins and histories
1 Speaking from beyond the grave: The many roles of ghosts in early modern English popular literature - Brendan Walsh
2 Unruly subjects: Apparitional property and spectral revenge in 'The Drummer of Tedworth' (1662-63) and its afterlives - Kirsten T. Saxton
3 'It is midnight, my wedded': Queer spectrality in the works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes - Joseph Crawford
4 Raising the Holy Ghost in the Gothic: Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights - Carol Margaret Davison
5 Ghostly knowing laughter: Comic Gothic in the works of W.S. Gilbert - Rebecca Lloyd
6 Queer spectres of the British Raj - Jamil Mustafa
7 Unsafe spaces: Coercion, control, and the domestic in the ghostly Gothic tales of E. Nesbit - Ruth Heholt
8 Navigating nautical timescapes: Ghosts and haunting in the Victorian and Edwardian maritime world - Karl Bell
Part II: The twentieth century and beyond
9 Dark London, alienation, and female vulnerability in the modernist ghost stories of Violet Hunt and Marie Belloc Lowndes - Emma Liggins
10 'The Companionship of the Dead': Benevolent ghosts in the Irish civil war stories of Dorothy Macardle - Melissa Edmundson
11 'An ill luck on the place': Industrial activity and the vengeful past in three ghost stories by L.T.C. Rolt - William Hughes
12 Cold War politics and spectral recycling: Andrew Klavan's The Uncanny - Andrew Smith
13 Lovely bones and settled scores: Contemporary women's interweaving of ghost and crime stories - Gina Wisker
14 Ghost time: spectral temporalities in Asian Gothic - Katarzyna Ancuta
15 Spectral photographs: Ghostly memories, trauma, and the haunted past in the MCU's Avengers franchise - Lorna Piatti-Farnell
16 Trauma and resilience and being Black in America: the ghosts in Mariama Diallo's Master (2022) and Margaret Brown's Descendant (2022) - Ardel Haefele-Thomas
Index -- .