Awards

• Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2025 (UK)

Overview

The Edinburgh Companion to Comic Gothic explores the role of irony, satire, parody, pastiche and the absurd in Gothic texts dating from the eighteenth century up to the present day. Its particular focus on the use of Comic Gothic in social media and popular culture make it a distinctive and original contribution to Gothic studies that will be especially welcomed by undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Full Product Details

9781399557702

Table of Contents

Reviews

The Gothic has to do with the dark, but ever since the days of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey it has also had its comic side, revelling in exaggeration, melodrama, pastiche, satire and the absurd, as this brilliant collection of essays demonstrates across a satisfyingly wide range of periods and styles. -- David Punter, University of Bristol Clear and comprehensive, Comic Gothic builds on Horner and Zlosnik’s Gothic and the Comic Turn, which examined the Gothic’s disruptions of fear and horror by situations rife with comic potential. Comic Gothic not only features a historical sweep from the 18th to 21st centuries but also expands its scope to include essays on American, Canadian, Indian, New Zealander, Thai, and Jewish Gothic modes. [...] Overall, this collection offers readers many fascinating points of entry into the comedic affect of a genre typically presented through the affects of horror and fear. Summing Up: Highly recommended. -- C. L. Bandish, Bluffton University * CHOICE *

The Gothic has to do with the dark, but ever since the days of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey it has also had its comic side, revelling in exaggeration, melodrama, pastiche, satire and the absurd, as this brilliant collection of essays demonstrates across a satisfyingly wide range of periods and styles. --David Punter, University of Bristol

Author Information

Avril Horner is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Kingston University. With Sue Zlosnik she has co-authored many articles and several books, including Daphne du Maurier: Writing, Identity and the Gothic Imagination (1998), Gothic and the Comic Turn (2005) and Women and the Gothic (2016). Other works include Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch, 1934-1995 (with Anne Rowe, 2015) and Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence (2024). Alone, she has published essays on writers such as Djuna Barnes, Kate Chopin, Iris Murdoch and Carol Ann Duffy. Her biography of Barbara Comyns will be published in 2024. Sue Zlosnik is Emeritus Professor of English at Manchester Metropolitan University and former co-President of the International Gothic Association. With Avril Horner, she has published six books, including Daphne du Maurier: Writing, Identity and the Gothic Imagination (1998), Gothic and the Comic Turn (2005), The Edinburgh Companion to Women and the Gothic (2016) as well as numerous essays and articles. Alone, she has published essays on writers as diverse as J. R. R. Tolkien and Chuck Palahniuk and a monograph, Patrick McGrath (2011). She is co-editor (with Agnes Andeweg) of Gothic Kinship (2013).

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