The term ‘Gothic’ has been applied to examples of Australian cinema since the 1970s, often in arbitrary and divergent ways. This book examines a wide range of Australian films to trace their Gothic resemblances, characteristics and meanings. Concentrating on the occurrence of Gothic motifs, characters, landscapes and narratives, it argues for the recognition and relevance of a coherent Gothic heritage in Australian film. Considering a plethora of Gothic representatives in relation to four consistent and illuminating continuities (images of the family, ideas of monstrosity, generic hybridity and the occurrence of the sublime), this study investigates the appearance and asserts the significance of Australian Gothic films within their national, cultural, literary and cinematic traditions.

Grisly corpses, ghostly women and psychotic station-owners populate an unforgiving landscape that is the stuff of nightmares. These compelling stories are the dark underside to the usual story of colonial progress, promise and nation-building, and reveal the gothic imagination that lies at the heart of Australian fiction. This anthology collects the best examples of colonial Australian gothic short stories by authors such as Marcus Clarke, Hume Nisbet, Henry Lawson and Katherine Susannah Prichard, among others.

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As global cinema becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish, characterizations of horror films from various geographical and cultural locations seem more fluid and transitional than ever before. However, this does not mean denying the existence of national features that affect and are reflected in horror films, whether from an artistic or a reception standpoint. Horror is one of the most studied genres in cinema, yet none of the many books on the subject focus on films or traditions outside the United States or the United Kingdom. While Italian, Japanese, Mexican, German, and Hong Kong horror films have received a modicum of critical recognition, the areas of Egyptian, Romanian, Belgian, Dutch, New Zealand, and Thai horror all still need-in fact, demand-some attention. Horror International seeks to rectify this by giving the global perspectives and cross-cultural dynamics of world horror cinema its due. This groundbreaking collection of eighteen original essays examine a myriad of films, showing how each draws from Hollywood horror conventions and also local cinematic traditions, local folklore, and national historical and cultural concerns. The production, marketing, and reception of various national cinemas are also addressed, demonstrating how these films are understood by different audiences worldwide. This in turn sheds new light on the original cultural production of many works and their subsequent "translations" and meanings in different national contexts. The diverse and highly informative essays in Horror International will engross both scholars and fans of horror films and finally illuminate the distinct multicultural factors of this exciting cinematic genre.

Since it first emerged from Britain’s punk-rock scene in the late 1970s, goth subculture has haunted postmodern culture and society, reinventing itself inside and against the mainstream. Goth: Undead Subculture is the first collection of scholarly essays devoted to this enduring yet little examined cultural phenomenon. Twenty-three essays from various disciplines explore the music, cinema, television, fashion, literature, aesthetics, and fandoms associated with the subculture. They examine goth’s many dimensions—including its melancholy, androgyny, spirituality, and perversity—and take readers inside locations in Los Angeles, Austin, Leeds, London, Buffalo, New York City, and Sydney. A number of the contributors are or have been participants in the subculture, and several draw on their own experiences. The volume’s editors provide a rich history of goth, describing its play of resistance and consumerism; its impact on class, race, and gender; and its distinctive features as an “undead” subculture in light of post-subculture studies and other critical approaches. The essays include an interview with the distinguished fashion historian Valerie Steele; analyses of novels by Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, and Nick Cave; discussions of goths on the Internet; and readings of iconic goth texts from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to James O’Barr’s graphic novel The Crow. Other essays focus on gothic music, including seminal precursors such as Joy Division and David Bowie, and goth-influenced performers such as the Cure, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson. Gothic sexuality is explored in multiple ways, the subjects ranging from the San Francisco queercore scene of the 1980s to the increasing influence of fetishism and fetish play. Together these essays demonstrate that while its participants are often middle-class suburbanites, goth blurs normalizing boundaries even as it appears as an everlasting shadow of late capitalism. Contributors: Heather Arnet, Michael Bibby, Jessica Burstein, Angel M. Butts, Michael du Plessis, Jason Friedman, Nancy Gagnier, Ken Gelder, Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Joshua Gunn, Trevor Holmes, Paul Hodkinson, David Lenson, Robert Markley, Mark Nowak, Anna Powell, Kristen Schilt, Rebecca Schraffenberger, David Shumway, Carol Siegel, Catherine Spooner, Lauren Stasiak, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock

This revised new edition of The Handbook of the Gothic contains over one hundred entries on Gothic writers, themes, terms, concepts, contexts and locations, featuring new entries on writers including Stephen King and Wilkie Collins, new genres and a new Preface which situates the handbook within current studies of the Gothic.