Gothic Transgression, Horror and Film

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Abstract

This chapter suggests that despite gothic’s tendency to reinstate order, disturbances resonate at a narrative’s ending. Motivated by a cyclical return of the repressed, gothic has a propensity for transgression, and for critiquing repression. The chapter explores the life–death quality of cinema, and the subtleties of style and tone that formulate a specifically ‘cinematic gothic.’ Sigmund Freud’s ‘The Uncanny’ helps to articulate the dualities of public and private, or external and internal, suggesting the haunting return of something that should have remained hidden. Horror upsurges from within—devastating boundaries between self and ‘other’ and preconceived concepts of ‘home.’ Cinematic devices help to ignite gothic concerns, such as the doppelgänger and split self, excess, fantasy /reality boundaries, or the persistence of the past within the present.

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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Media and Film StudiesUniversity of WinchesterWinchesterUK

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