Industrial Gothic: Workers, Exploitation and Urbanization in Transatlantic Nineteenth-Century Literature

This study explores a subset of transatlantic nineteenth-century literature that employs the tropes, themes, and rhetoric of the Gothic to portray the real-life horrors of factory life, framing the Industrial Revolution as a site of Gothic excess and horror. It argues that stories about the real horrors of factory life frequently employed the mode of the Gothic, while nineteenth-century Gothic writing began to use new settings - factories, mills, and industrial cities - as backdrops for the horrors that once populated Gothic castles.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 15 June 2021
Publisher: University of Wales Press

This groundbreaking study pioneers a novel field of inquiry, the industrial Gothic, which brings together the literature of the Industrial Revolution with the Gothic genre. It delves into a significant segment of transatlantic nineteenth-century literature that employs the tropes, themes, and rhetoric of the Gothic to vividly depict the gruesome realities of factory life, portraying the Industrial Revolution as a realm of gothic excess and horror. By utilizing archival materials from the nineteenth century, the book explores localized instances of gothic industrialization in specific cities like Lowell and Manchester, alongside transnational connections and comparisons. It argues that narratives about the actual horrors of factory life often adopted the gothic mode, while nineteenth-century gothic writing, encompassing stories, novels, poems, and stage adaptations, began to utilize factories, mills, and industrial cities as the backdrop for the horrors that once thrived in gothic castles.

This groundbreaking study pioneers a novel field of inquiry, the industrial Gothic, which brings together the literature of the Industrial Revolution with the Gothic genre. It delves into a significant segment of transatlantic nineteenth-century literature that employs the tropes, themes, and rhetoric of the Gothic to vividly depict the gruesome realities of factory life, portraying the Industrial Revolution as a realm of gothic excess and horror. By utilizing archival materials from the nineteenth century, the book explores localized instances of gothic industrialization in specific cities like Lowell and Manchester, alongside transnational connections and comparisons. It argues that narratives about the actual horrors of factory life often adopted the gothic mode, while nineteenth-century gothic writing, encompassing stories, novels, poems, and stage adaptations, began to utilize factories, mills, and industrial cities as the backdrop for the horrors that once thrived in gothic castles.

Weight: 494g
Dimension: 223 x 146 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781786837707