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The Longman Anthology of Gothic Verse

Caroline Franklin Orcid Logo

Swansea University Author: Caroline Franklin Orcid Logo

Abstract

This is the first anthology of Gothic verse ever to be published. It is a substantial anthology which follows Gothic from its origins in eighteenth-century graveyard verse and folk ballads to its role in inspiring early film at the dawn of the twentieth century. The anthology is aimed at the sophist...

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Published: New York Pearson 2010
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa11430
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Abstract: This is the first anthology of Gothic verse ever to be published. It is a substantial anthology which follows Gothic from its origins in eighteenth-century graveyard verse and folk ballads to its role in inspiring early film at the dawn of the twentieth century. The anthology is aimed at the sophisticated reader, and provides focused rather than exhaustive paratext: relevant biographical information, scholarly headnotes to the poems, explanatory notes on obscure words and references, a selection of relevant illustrations and an index of authors. titles and first lines. A substantial 8000 word introduction puts the rise of Gothic poetry into its historical context, relating it to Enlightenment scepticism about the irrational aspect of Christian culture, and intense literary debate over whether the supernatural should be represented in secular literature. The overlap between Gothic and 'Romantic' poetry is then addressed with reference to the ideological pressures emphasizing realism during the late Victorian construction of the canon of English Literature. Although Gothic fiction has been paid serious critical attention for over twenty years, Gothic verse has never before been categorised as such and has received scant critical attention. The aim of producing the first anthology of Gothic verse is to stimulate scholarly debate over these literary categories as well as to provide academics, students and general readers with a varied and stimulating collection of poetry, which revisions the familiar and brings the less well known into view.
Keywords: Gothic, verse, poetry
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences