Gothic Literature | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 65 pages of analysis & critique of Gothic Literature.

Gothic Literature | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 65 pages of analysis & critique of Gothic Literature.
This section contains 18,033 words
(approx. 61 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Paula R. Backscheider

SOURCE: Backscheider, Paula R. “Gothic Drama and National Crisis.” In Spectacular Politics: Theatrical Power and Mass Culture in Early Modern England, pp. 149-88. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.

In the following essay, Backsheider maintains that the enormous popularity of Gothic drama can be accounted for by its ability to reproduce and contain the cultural anxieties that accompanied the era's political and social unrest.

Gothic drama reached its creative and popular peak at a time when a number of political orders were being renegotiated and being complicated by almost unprecedented national and international crises. A few of the major events of the last quarter of the eighteenth century were the American Revolution, the Gordon Riots, the Regency Crisis, the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, and the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. In addition, Britain had to absorb the massive physical and social dislocations of the agrarian and industrial...

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This section contains 18,033 words
(approx. 61 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Paula R. Backscheider
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Critical Essay by Paula R. Backscheider from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.