The Gothic and the Carnivalesque in American Culture , livre ebook

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The Gothic and the Carnivalesque in American Culture offers a new account of the American Gothic. Gothic studies, the field that explores horrid and frightful narratives, usually describes the genre as exploring genuine historical fears, crises and traumas, yet this does not account for the ways in which the genre is often a source of wicked delight as much as it is of horror – its audiences laugh as often as they shriek. This book traces the carnivalesque tradition in the American Gothic from the nineteenth into the late twentieth century. It discusses the festivals offered by Poe, Hawthorne and Irving; the celebrations of wickedness offered by the Weird Tales writers, including H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith; the curious aura attached to Ray Bradbury’s stories; the way in which hosted horrors in comics and on television in the 1950s and 1960s taught their mass audiences how to read the genre; Stephen King’s nurturing of a new audience for Gothic carnivals in the 1970s and 1980s; and the confluence of Gothic story and Goth subculture in the 1990s.

Introduction: Ballyhoo
Chapter One: Theory, Practice and Gothic Carnival
Chapter Two: ‘The Delight of its Horror’ – Poe’s Carnivals and the Nineteenth-Century American Gothic
Chapter Three: Weird Tales and Pulp Subjunctivity
Chapter Four: Ray Bradbury and the October Aura
Chapter Five: Hosted Horrors of the 1950s and 1960s
Chapter Six: Stephen King, Affect and the Real Limits of Gothic Practice
Chapter Seven: Every Day is Halloween – Goth and the Gothic
Conclusion: Waiting for the Great Pumpkin
Contents
Introduction: Ballyhoo
Chapter One: Theory, Practice and Gothic Carnival
Chapter Two: ‘The Delight of its Horror’ – Poe’s Carnivals and the Nineteenth-Century American Gothic
Chapter Three: Weird Tales and Pulp Subjunctivity
Chapter Four: Ray Bradbury and the October Aura
Chapter Five: Hosted Horrors of the 1950s and 1960s
Chapter Six: Stephen King, Affect and the Real Limits of Gothic Practice
Chapter Seven: Every Day is Halloween – Goth and the Gothic
Conclusion: Waiting for the Great Pumpkin

Sujets

Literary Criticism

American

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Publié par	University of Wales Press
Date de parution	15 mai 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781783162307
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,2174€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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THE GOTHIC AND THE CARNIVALESQUE
IN AMERICAN CULTURESERIES PREFACE
Gothic Literary Studies is dedicated to publishing groundbreaking
scholarship on Gothic in literature and ﬁlm. The Gothic, which has
been subjected to a variety of critical and theoretical approaches,
is a form which plays an important role in our understanding of
literary, intellectual and cultural histories. The series seeks to promote
challenging and innovative approaches to Gothic which question
any aspect of the Gothic tradition or perceived critical orthodoxy.
Volumes in the series explore how issues such as gender, religion,
nation and sexuality have shaped our view of the Gothic tradition.
Both academically rigorous and informed by the latest developments
in critical theory, the series provides an important focus for scholarly
developments in Gothic studies, literary studies, cultural studies and
critical theory. The series will be of interest to students of all levels
and to scholars and teachers of the Gothic and literary and cultural
histories.
SERIES EDITORS
Andrew Smith, University of Shefﬁeld
Benjamin F. Fisher, University of Mississippi
EDITORIAL BOARD
Kent Ljungquist, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Massachusetts
Richard Fusco, St Joseph’s University, Philadelphia
David Punter, University of Bristol
Chris Baldick, University of London
Angela Wright, University of Shefﬁeld
Jerrold E. Hogle, University of ArizonaThe Gothic and the Carnivalesque
in American Culture
Timothy Jones
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS
2015© Timothy Jones, 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material
form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic
means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of
this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner.
Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce
any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales
Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78316-192-8
e-ISBN 978-1-78316-230-7
The right of Timothy Jones to be identiﬁed as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
Typeset in Wales by Eira Fenn Gaunt, Pentyrch, Cardiff
Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshirefor JaneCONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Ballyhoo 1
1 Theory, Practice and Gothic Carnival 9
2 ‘The Delight of its Horror’ – Edgar Allan Poe’s
Carnivals and the Nineteenth-Century American
Gothic 41
3 Weird Tales and Pulp Subjunctivity 71
4 Ray Bradbury and the October Aura 99
5 ‘Hello, again, you little monsters!’ – Hosted Horrors
of the 1950s and 1960s 123
6 Stephen King, Affect and the Real Limits of
Gothic Practice 151
7 Every Day is Halloween – Goth and the Gothic 179
Conclusion: Waiting for the Great Pumpkin 205
Notes 211
Works Cited 235
Index 249 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks are due to Fred Botting, Charles Ferrall, Jerrold E. Hogle,
Ingrid Horrocks, William Hughes, Anna Jackson, Thierry Jutel,
John Muirhead, David Norton, Harry Ricketts, Andrew Smith,
Catherine Spooner, Jane Stafford, Mark Williams and Peter Whiteford,
all extraordinarily generous in their support of this research and the
researcher.
Excerpts from Ray Bradbury’s works are reprinted by permission
of Don Congdon Associates, Inc., as agents for Ray Bradbury
Literary Works, LLC. Excerpts from Carrie copyright © 1974
Stephen King; The Shining copyright © 1977 Stephen King; Danse
Macabre copyright © 1981 Stephen King; Skeleton Crew copyright
© 1985 Stephen King; It copyright © 1986 Stephen King; On
Writing copyright © 2000 Stephen King; reproduced by permission
of Hodder & Stoughton Limited. Excerpts from Beloved by Toni
Morrison copyright © 1987 by Toni Morrison. Used by permission
of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire
Lestat, published by Futura Books, a division of Macdonald and
Co, used by permission of Random House LLC. Excerpts from
Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat used
also by permission of Little, Brown Book Group. Excerpts from The Vampire Lestat reprinted by permission of the
author.
Some of the ideas discussed in chapter 1 were ﬁrst presented in
Gothic Studies, 11/1 (2009).K
Introduction: Ballyhoo
The label ‘American Gothic’ suggests a genre that describes the
historical circumstance of the American nation; certainly, this has
been a common theme in criticism since the 1980s, which has
loaded the genre with various discursive potentials. The American
Gothic often very obviously addresses crises and traumas produced
by genuine historical forces; indeed, how can a text not be marked
by the time and space from which it emerged? Yet this account of
the genre has difﬁculty explaining why it should be that readers often
use Gothic texts as a source of irresponsible and wicked pleasure
rather than as an engagement with the serious stuff supposedly being
described. Often, the Gothic text does not offer a compelling account
of the American real, but nevertheless remains a distinct product
of American culture. These texts are the product of a historical
moment but appear to turn their back on that moment, instead
offering readers something else.
What is this something? Consider Charles G. Finney’s 1935
novella, The Circus of Dr. Lao. An extraordinary circus rolls into
Abalone, Arizona, and demands the attention of the townsfolk. The
conceit of the book is that the circus is ﬁlled with true wonders – a
sea serpent, the magician Apollonius of Tyana, a hound made of
vegetation, a ‘Sonoran medusa from Northern Mexico’, and so
1forth; the attractions all have ‘a taint of evil or hysteria about them’.
Yet the folk of Abalone, mired in Depression-era troubles, have The Gothic and the Carnivalesque
difﬁculty recognising the authenticity of the miraculous carnival.
Larry Kamper sees the parade on Main Street but refuses to believe
the unicorn is anything other than a fake; confronted with a mythical
roc, Edna Rogers complains she had actually been hoping to see
2elephants holding each other’s tails. Their everyday lives are too
raw, too banal to admit the proffered eccentricities.
The narrative builds towards a performance under the big top, a
show that works itself up to a cruel, ritualistic, sexual frenzy; the
circus’s acts are basically Gothic – salacious, satanic and appalling. A
black mass is staged as an entertainment, witches ﬂy through the air,
the Devil himself is made to manifest, a naked witch is whipped, then
all is dismissed so the next act can be rolled in. The limits of the
big top disappear as a statue of the great god Yottle appears, together
with thousands of worshippers. Virgin sacriﬁce is demanded and
three people are crushed to death. The performance threatens to spiral
out of control; the medusa accidentally petriﬁes a handful of spectators.
3Yet the audience cry out ‘Louder and funnier!’ Uptight audience
member Agnes Birdsong complains that the circus is a symbol of
evil; Mr Etaoin consoles her: ‘It’s only a circus’, he says. ‘Don’t let it
4disturb you.’ Both the staging and the audience’s reactions are comic,
but not quite absurd. The text presents a largely nonsensical but
recog nis ably Gothic performance. Marvels, violence, weird rites and
forbidden sexuality are presented, but the audience want more volume
and better jokes. Concerns about fakery are aired; prim moral complaint
follows. The action is presented as potentially out of control, but it is
safe for the majority of the spectators. Whatever terrible thing is
happening on the stage, Mr Etaoin is right – circuses ought not to disturb.
The way the carnival is presented suggests Gothic experience in
a wider sense. As anyone who has watched a horror ﬁlm in a full
cinema knows, when frightful action is presented, sometimes the
audience appears to be scared – gasping, shrieking, quietly tense –
but just as often, there is laughter, incredulity and even derision
expressed. This is not breaking faith with the spirit of the performance
or ﬁlm: it is instead characteristic of how we engage with horror
narrative. The screams should be louder, the ghastly should be
funnier, it ought to bother the likes of an Agnes Birdsong more
than it already does, and it needs to continue to entertain the body
of the audience.
2Introduction
As Apollonius prepares to summon witches and demons, ‘a pall
of darkness came into the tent, opaque and not to be seen through;
and it crept into every angle and corner of the tent, so that one
5could not tell beside whom one sat.’ This too is an important
method of the Gothic carnival. The show’s viewers are offered
anonymity. They need not be held accountable for their responses;
for the period of the darkness they are excused the responsibilities
of their identity and their place in the community, of the pressures
of the sensible and the seemly. Yet ultimately, the folk of Abalone
are utterly unchanged by the spectacle, and if they are genuinely
moved, the text does not say. The show is over and ‘into the dust
and sunshine the people of Abalone went homewards or wherever
6else they were going.’ It is not that the circus has been less than
disturbing or thrilling: it is that the real is so powerful that it cannot
be repudiated or avoided, except for the small period of time
watching the show. The townsfolk are like Mrs Cassan, who has
had her fortune read by Apollonius; he tells her ‘Tomorrow will
be like today . . . I see your remaining days as quiet, tedious
collections of hour