Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations and Captions for Volume II
- Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Gothic in the Nineteenth Century, 1800–1900
- 2.1 Gothic Romanticism and the Summer of 1816
- 2.2 Fantasmagoriana: The Cosmopolitan Gothic and Frankenstein
- 2.3 The Mutation of the Vampire in Nineteenth-Century Gothic
- 2.4 From Romantic Gothic to Victorian Medievalism: 1817 and 1877
- 2.5 Nineteenth-Century Gothic Architectural Aesthetics: A. W. N. Pugin, John Ruskin and William Morris
- 2.6 Gothic Fiction, from Shilling Shockers to Penny Bloods
- 2.7 The Theatrical Gothic in the Nineteenth Century
- 2.8 ‘Spectrology’: Gothic Showmanship in Nineteenth-Century Popular Shows and Media
- 2.9 The Gothic in Victorian Poetry
- 2.10 The Genesis of the Victorian Ghost Story
- 2.11 Charles Dickens and the Gothic
- 2.12 Victorian Domestic Gothic Fiction
- 2.13 The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century Spain
- 2.14 The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century Italy
- 2.15 The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century Scotland
- 2.16 The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century Ireland
- 2.17 The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century America
- 2.18 Nineteenth-Century British and American Gothic and the History of Slavery
- 2.19 Genealogies of Monstrosity: Darwin, the Biology of Crime and Nineteenth-Century British Gothic Literature
- 2.20 Gothic and the Coming of the Railways
- 2.21 Gothic Imperialism at the Fin de siècle
- Select Bibliography
- Index
2.8 - ‘Spectrology’: Gothic Showmanship in Nineteenth-Century Popular Shows and Media
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2020
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations and Captions for Volume II
- Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Gothic in the Nineteenth Century, 1800–1900
- 2.1 Gothic Romanticism and the Summer of 1816
- 2.2 Fantasmagoriana: The Cosmopolitan Gothic and Frankenstein
- 2.3 The Mutation of the Vampire in Nineteenth-Century Gothic
- 2.4 From Romantic Gothic to Victorian Medievalism: 1817 and 1877
- 2.5 Nineteenth-Century Gothic Architectural Aesthetics: A. W. N. Pugin, John Ruskin and William Morris
- 2.6 Gothic Fiction, from Shilling Shockers to Penny Bloods
- 2.7 The Theatrical Gothic in the Nineteenth Century
- 2.8 ‘Spectrology’: Gothic Showmanship in Nineteenth-Century Popular Shows and Media
- 2.9 The Gothic in Victorian Poetry
- 2.10 The Genesis of the Victorian Ghost Story
- 2.11 Charles Dickens and the Gothic
- 2.12 Victorian Domestic Gothic Fiction
- 2.13 The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century Spain
- 2.14 The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century Italy
- 2.15 The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century Scotland
- 2.16 The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century Ireland
- 2.17 The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century America
- 2.18 Nineteenth-Century British and American Gothic and the History of Slavery
- 2.19 Genealogies of Monstrosity: Darwin, the Biology of Crime and Nineteenth-Century British Gothic Literature
- 2.20 Gothic and the Coming of the Railways
- 2.21 Gothic Imperialism at the Fin de siècle
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter offers a survey of a full century of Gothic entertainments, including shows such as the phantasmagoria, Pepper’s Ghost, the magic theatre, and theatrical séances, as well as macabre shows in penny gaffs, fairgrounds and the first screening venues for early films. In relation to this variety of entertainments, it argues for an open definition of Gothic, pointing out that it was the adaptability of Gothic registers that proved so productive for nineteenth-century showmen and women, allowing them routinely to attract audiences at all sorts of venues and as tastes changed across the decades. Drawing on a wide range of primary research in newspapers, the chapter also reconsiders the relationship between these patterns of ‘Gothic showmanship’, and the mass media spectacles delivered by late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century magic- lantern shows and early film. Such media demonstrated continuities with Gothic shows of the preceding century, but also with the eclecticism of late twentieth and twenty-first-century Gothic mass media, suggesting a long trajectory for patterns of Gothic showmanship that is worthy of further consideration.
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- The Cambridge History of the Gothic , pp. 182 - 203Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020