{"product_id":"9780809324712","title":"The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film","description":"\u003cp\u003eUnearthing the fearful flesh and sinful skins at the heart of gothic horror, Jack Morgan rends the genre’s biological core from its oft-discussed psychological elements and argues for a more transhistorical conception of the gothic, one negatively related to comedy. \u003ci\u003eThe Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film \u003c\/i\u003edissects popular examples from the gothic literary and cinematic canon, exposing the inverted comic paradigm within each text.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e            \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMorgan’s study begins with an extensive treatment of comedy as theoretically conceived by Suzanne Langer, C. L. Barber, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Then, Morgan analyzes the physical and mythological nature of horror in inverted comic terms, identifying a biologically grounded mythos of horror. Motifs such as sinister loci, languishment, masquerade, and subversion of sensual perception are contextualized here as embedded in an organic reality, resonating with biological motives and consequences. Morgan also devotes a chapter to the migration of the gothic tradition into American horror, emphasizing the body as horror’s essential \u003ci\u003eplace \u003c\/i\u003ein American gothic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bulk of Morgan’s study is applied to popular gothic literature and films ranging from high gothic classics like Matthew Lewis’s \u003ci\u003eThe Monk,\u003c\/i\u003e Ann Radcliffe’s \u003ci\u003eThe Mysteries of Udolpho,\u003c\/i\u003e Charles Maturin’s \u003ci\u003eMelmoth the Wanderer,\u003c\/i\u003e and Mary Shelley’s \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein,\u003c\/i\u003e to later literary works such as Poe’s macabre tales, Melville’s “Benito Cereno,” J.S. Le Fanu’s \u003ci\u003eUncle Silas,\u003c\/i\u003e H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” Shirley Jackson’s \u003ci\u003eThe Haunting of Hillhouse,\u003c\/i\u003e Stephen King’s \u003ci\u003eSalem’s Lot,\u003c\/i\u003e and Clive Barker’s \u003ci\u003eThe Damnation Game. \u003c\/i\u003eConsidered films include \u003ci\u003eNosferatu, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Night of the Living Dead, Angel Heart, The Stand,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Shining. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e           \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMorgan\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003econcludes his physical examination of the Gothic reality with a consideration born of Julia Kristeva’s theoretical rubric which addresses horror’s existential and cultural significance, its lasting fascination, and its uncanny positive—and often therapeutic—direction in literature and film.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Southern Illinois University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47015220969712,"sku":"9780809324712","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780809324712_p0.jpg?v=1763740681","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780809324712","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}