“Claiming that the gothic is intensely engaged with historical concerns, this study contests traditional asseessments that classify it as an escapist form. Instead of fleeing reality, the gothic registers its culture's contraditions, presenting a distorted, not a disengaged, version of reality. While this study addresses a number of sites of historical horror—revolution, Indian massacre, the transformation of the marketplace—it is especially concerned with how slavery haunts the American gothic.”
Goddu, Teresa A. Gothic America: Narrative, History, and Nation. New York: Columbia UP, 1997.
