What Is the Gothic?

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter 1
2. Contents 5
3. Acknowledgments 7
4. Abbreviations 9
5. Introduction 11
6. PART I: The Gothic and the Savage Villain/Civil Hero Gotheme
7. What Is the Gothic? 27
8. British Origins of the Savage Villain/ Civil Hero Gotheme 57
9. PART II: The Savage Villain/Civil Hero Gotheme: WASP Origins and Iterations
10. Early WASP American Adaptations 77
11. Contemporary WASP American Iterations 101
12. PART III: “You say I am wilderness. I am”— Black Origins and African American Reiterations
13. Innovation and Resistance: The SV/CH Gotheme in Black Writing, 1789 to 1861 143
14. African American Gothic Today: Black Tradition and Reiterative Practices 203
15. Epilogue: The American Gothic, Raciality, and the Possibility of Reiterative “Unthought” 253
16. Works Cited 259