From its beginnings in the 18th century, the gothic was
disparaged for its predictable group style and unoriginality. The earliest
reviewers and parodists criticized gothic novels for being admixtures of
already clichéd gothic scenes thrown in merely to attract fans of the new
genre. To this day, the gothic is a paradoxical genre, its outré subject
matters seemingly at odds with a tendency to rely on familiar tropes and
formulae. All gothic texts are mash-ups to the extent that they are haunted by
previous texts. Far from being a failing, this propensity on the part of gothic
storytellers to make new stories out of older ones is arguably the genre’s most
compelling feature.
Intended for publication with Lexington Books, Gothic
Mash-Ups will theorize and trace the way that producers of gothic fiction –
from the 18th century to today – appropriate, combine, and reimagine elements
from earlier texts and genres. Particularly welcome are essays about individual
texts (or groups of texts) that bring together characters and storylines from
two or more prior gothic narratives or cross gothic storylines with other kinds
of stories. From Walpole’s early generic hodgepodge and Universal Pictures’
monster film crossovers to such contemporary “Frankenfictions” (De Bruin-Molé)
as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Penny Dreadful, this collection
will examine the fundamental hybridity of the gothic as a genre.
