American Women's Ghost Stories in the Gilded Age

Autorentext
Anglophone postcolonial studies has been characterized by its secular nature. Yet as the first generation of scholars grapples with mortality, a yearning for spiritual meaning is emerging in many texts. This study synthesizes the sacred language used in these texts with critical theory in order to create a holistic frame for interpretive analysis.

Klappentext

Zusammenfassung
This book shows just how closely late nineteenth-century American women's ghost stories engaged with objects such as photographs, mourning paraphernalia, wallpaper and humble domestic furniture. Featuring uncanny tales from the big city to the small town and the empty prairie, it offers a new perspective on an old genre.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements Preface 1. 'Fitted to a Frame': Picturing the Gothic Female Body 2. 'Handled With a Chain': Gilman's 'The Yellow Wall-Paper' and The Dangers of the Arabesque 3. 'Dancing Like a Bomb Abroad': Dawson's 'An Itinerant House' and the Haunting Cityscape 4. 'Solemnest of Industries': Wilkins' 'The Southwest Chamber' and Memorial Culture 5. 'Space Stares all Around': Peattie's 'The House that Was Not' and the (Un)Haunted Landscape 6. 'My Labor and My Leisure Too': Wynne's 'The Little Room' and Commodity Culture Afterword