Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: A History of Gothic Studies in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- 3.1 Gothic and Silent Cinema
- 3.2 Gothic, the Great War and the Rise of Modernism, 1910‒1936
- 3.3 Gothic and the American South, 1919‒1962
- 3.4 Hollywood Gothic, 1930–1960
- 3.5 Gothic and War, 1930‒1991
- 3.6 Gothic and the Postcolonial Moment
- 3.7 Gothic and the Heritage Movement in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- 3.8 Gothic Enchantment: The Magical Strain in Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century Anglo-American Gothic
- 3.9 Psychoanalysis and the American Popular Gothic, 1954–1980
- 3.10 Gothic and the Counterculture, 1958‒Present
- 3.11 Gothic Television
- 3.12 Gothic and the Rise of Feminism
- 3.13 Gothic, AIDS and Sexuality, 1981–Present
- 3.14 The Gothic in the Age of Neo-Liberalism, 1990‒Present
- 3.15 The Gothic and Remix Culture
- 3.16 Postdigital Gothic
- 3.17 Gothic Multiculturalism
- 3.18 Gothic, Neo-Imperialism and the War on Terror
- 3.19 Global Gothic 1: Islamic Gothic
- 3.20 Global Gothic 2: East Asian Gothic
- 3.21 Global Gothic 3: Gothic in Modern Scandinavia
- 3.22 Gothic in an Age of Environmental Crisis
- 3.23 Gothic and the Apocalyptic Imagination
- Select Bibliography and Filmography
- Index
3.6 - Gothic and the Postcolonial Moment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2021
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: A History of Gothic Studies in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- 3.1 Gothic and Silent Cinema
- 3.2 Gothic, the Great War and the Rise of Modernism, 1910‒1936
- 3.3 Gothic and the American South, 1919‒1962
- 3.4 Hollywood Gothic, 1930–1960
- 3.5 Gothic and War, 1930‒1991
- 3.6 Gothic and the Postcolonial Moment
- 3.7 Gothic and the Heritage Movement in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- 3.8 Gothic Enchantment: The Magical Strain in Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century Anglo-American Gothic
- 3.9 Psychoanalysis and the American Popular Gothic, 1954–1980
- 3.10 Gothic and the Counterculture, 1958‒Present
- 3.11 Gothic Television
- 3.12 Gothic and the Rise of Feminism
- 3.13 Gothic, AIDS and Sexuality, 1981–Present
- 3.14 The Gothic in the Age of Neo-Liberalism, 1990‒Present
- 3.15 The Gothic and Remix Culture
- 3.16 Postdigital Gothic
- 3.17 Gothic Multiculturalism
- 3.18 Gothic, Neo-Imperialism and the War on Terror
- 3.19 Global Gothic 1: Islamic Gothic
- 3.20 Global Gothic 2: East Asian Gothic
- 3.21 Global Gothic 3: Gothic in Modern Scandinavia
- 3.22 Gothic in an Age of Environmental Crisis
- 3.23 Gothic and the Apocalyptic Imagination
- Select Bibliography and Filmography
- Index
Summary
This chapter looks at how the postcolonial negotiates the Gothic. Both are informed by a degree of suspicion about European Enlightenment rationalism and its constructs, but the Gothic also depends on colonial European elements – the Devil as Black, the Oriental artefact, obeah – for its effects. The postcolonial Gothic needs these effects – for the scream, as I argue, is central to the Gothic – but cannot use the same instruments because, by definition, postcolonialism adopts a critical and questioning attitude to colonial European discourses as well. By looking at a number of texts, especially the Caribbean Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, the South African André Brink’s Devil’s Valley, the Australian Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs, and the British-Indian Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People, I show how the Gothic villain or the Gothic secret is manipulated by postcolonialism to combine its critical perspectives with the Gothic’s generic requirements.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of the GothicVolume 3: Gothic in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries, pp. 118 - 136Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021