WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO HOVER: BETWEEN THE GOTHIC DISEASE AND THE MEATAPHYSICS OF HORROR

Frankfurt Am Main: Peter Lang, 2005.

The book systematises and analyses two broadly understood cross-cultural categories of Contemporary Gothic (1976-2002) and Modern Horror (1968-2002), breaking away with the traditional generic treatment of Gothic and Horror and suggesting their reconsideration in terms of two “syndromes” manifesting themselves (separately or side by side) in a number of texts. The respective criteria for the analysis of the said “syndromes” in the book are the criteria of disease (Contemporary Gothic) and meat (Modern Horror).

The observed shift from the understanding of Gothic and Horror as clearly delineated genres to their perception at the end of the 20th century as ubiquitous cultural categories is reflected in the choice of methodology and the broad scope of material covered. The book takes into consideration a variety of interpretations of Gothic and Horror motifs, looking for them in literature, film, theatrical productions, ballet, contemporary art, performance art, graphic novels and video games. Last but not least, it discusses Contemporary Gothic and Modern Horror’s influence on alternative lifestyles and alternative identity formation, as best illustrated on the example of the Goth subculture.

Addressing the Gothic “syndrome,” the book suggests the reading of Contemporary Gothic as a category permeated with disease, created by the diseased for the diseased. The analysed “Gothic” diseases are associated with the images of melancholy and contagious inevitability: the plague, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases (syphilis, AIDS), and a number of mental diseases (depression, mania, anxiety, sexuality disorders, and schizophrenia). In contrast, the Horror “syndrome” is theorised through meat-related concepts, stressing the tangible, physical character of Horror. Seeing Modern Horror as “body horror” the book concentrates on the notions of physicality and the flesh (the disembodied meat) suggesting four different approaches towards the subject: the perception of meat as the element of nourishment (man-eating monsters, cannibalism, the dread of meat), the human body (transformations, anatomy, monstrosity, skin), sexuality (sexploitation, inseparability of sex drive and death drive), and the negative perception of the female body (the monstrous feminine, the abject female body).