
Theological Monsters
Religion and Irish Gothic
Madeline Potter(Author)
University of Wales Press
Will be published approx. on 15. January 2026
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-83772-354-6 (ISBN)
Description
This book explores how monsters articulate questions about the sacred in nineteenth-century Irish Gothic literature. The relationship between religion and Gothic literature has traditionally been approached through denominational readings, but this study proposes how Irish Gothic texts from Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer to Le Fanu's 'Carmilla' and Bram Stoker's Dracula resist being inscribed into particular doctrinal frameworks. Abandoning allegorical interpretations, Theological Monsters proposes that real-life theologies do not translate into the fictional ones articulated across these texts. The focus is on revealing how the bodies of monsters make real and tangible otherwise abstract concepts associated with God and the afterlife, and on identifying monstrosity as a valuable way to uncover knowledge of the divine in nineteenth-century Irish Gothic literature. What follows is an original reassessment of three canonical writers - Maturin, Le Fanu and Stoker - highlighting their fictional theological exercises.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Wales
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Laminated cover
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
281 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83772-354-6 (9781837723546)
DOI
10.1234/b12171
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

E-Book
01/2026
1st Edition
University of Wales Press
€94.49
Available for download
Person
Madeline Potter is an early-career teaching and research fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
Content
Introduction: From Monsters to God
Chapter One. Melmoth's Theological Monstrosity
Chapter Two. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Swedenborg, Sacrifice, and the Ecumenical Monster
Chapter Three. Bram Stoker and Hybrid Monstrosity
Conclusion: The Legacies of the Theological Monster
Chapter One. Melmoth's Theological Monstrosity
Chapter Two. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Swedenborg, Sacrifice, and the Ecumenical Monster
Chapter Three. Bram Stoker and Hybrid Monstrosity
Conclusion: The Legacies of the Theological Monster