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Democracy and the American Gothic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2024

Michael J. Blouin
Affiliation:
Milligan University, Tennessee

Summary

While the political undercurrent of the American Gothic has been firmly established, few scholars have surveyed the genre's ambivalent relationship to democracy. The American Gothic routinely undercuts centralised authority by exposing the dark underbelly of the status quo; at the same time, the American Gothic tends to reflect a widespread mistrust of the masses. American readers are too afraid of democracy – and not yet fearful enough. This concise Element theorises the democratic and anti-democratic elements of the American Gothic by surveying the conflicted imaginaries of the genre's mainstays, including Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, and Stephen King.
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Online ISBN: 9781009279932
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 03 October 2024

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