Screening the Gothic

Lisa Hopkins

Published by University of Texas Press 2005

Screening the Gothic

Lisa Hopkins

https://doi.org/10.7560/706453

Overview
Contents

About this book

Filmmakers have long been drawn to the Gothic with its eerie settings and promise of horror lurking beneath the surface. Moreover, the Gothic allows filmmakers to hold a mirror up to their own age and reveal society's deepest fears. Franco Zeffirelli's Jane Eyre, Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet are just a few examples of film adaptations of literary Gothic texts. In this ground-breaking study, Lisa Hopkins explores how the Gothic has been deployed in these and other contemporary films and comes to some surprising conclusions. For instance, in a brilliant chapter on films geared to children, Hopkins finds that horror resides not in the trolls, wizards, and goblins that abound in Harry Potter, but in the heart of the family.

Screening the Gothic offers a radical new way of understanding the relationship between film and the Gothic as it surveys a wide range of films, many of which have received scant critical attention. Its central claim is that, paradoxically, those texts whose affiliations with the Gothic were the clearest became the least Gothic when filmed. Thus, Hopkins surprises readers by revealing Gothic elements in films such as Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park, as well as exploring more obviously Gothic films like The Mummy and The Fellowship of the Ring. Written in an accessible and engaging manner, Screening the Gothic will be of interest to film lovers as well as students and scholars.

Author / Editor information

Lisa Hopkins is Professor of English at Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England.

Reviews

Hopkins offers a remarkably fresh perspective on Gothic trends in both early modern and postmodern culture. . . . [H]er exploration of what constitutes 'the Gothic' has the potential to revolutionize the way we think about a genre that has too often been associated with horror.

— Courtney Lehmann

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction. The gothic Towards a Definition Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Chapter One. Gothic revenants: A Tale of Three Hamlets Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter Two. Putting the gothic in: Clarissa, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and TheTime Machine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Chapter Three. Taking the gothic out: ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, TheWoman in White, and Lady Audley’s Secret Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
Chapter Four. Fragmenting the gothic: Jane Eyre and Dracula Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
Chapter Five. Gothic and the family: The Mummy Returns, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, andThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
Works cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 188

eBook

Published: January 1, 2010
ISBN: 9780292796980