Gothic Voices: The Vococentric Soundworld of Gothic Writing

Matt Foley

doi:10.1017/9781009162579

Series: Elements in the Gothic

Gothic Voices

The Vococentric Soundworld of Gothic Writing

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2023

Matt Foley

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Matt Foley: Affiliation:
Manchester Metropolitan University

Summary

This Element provides new ways of reading the soundscape of the Gothic text. Drawing inspiration from the field of 'sonic Gothic' studies, which has been spearheaded by the writings of Isabella van Elferen, as well as from Mladen Dolar's articulation of the psychoanalytic 'object' voice, this study introduces the critical category of 'vococentric Gothic' into Gothic scholarship. In so doing, it reads important moments in Gothic fiction when the voice takes precedence as an uncanny, monstrous or seductive object. Historically informed, the range of readings proffered demonstrate the persistence of these vocal motifs across time (from the Gothic romance to contemporary Gothic) and across intermedia forms (from literature to film to podcasts). Gothic Voices, then, provides the first dedicated account of voices of terror and horror as they develop in the Gothic mode from the Romantic period until today.

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Gothic voices sonic Gothic ventriloquism vococentric

Type: Element
Information: Series: Elements in the Gothic

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009162579 [Opens in a new window]

Online ISBN: 9781009162579

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication: 09 February 2023

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Gothic Voices

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