Goth

Lauren M. E. Goodlad

Description

Since it first emerged from Britain's punk-rock scene in the late 1970s, goth subculture has haunted postmodern culture and society, reinventing itself inside and against the mainstream. Goth: Undead Subculture is the first collection of scholarly essays devoted to this enduring yet little examined cultural phenomenon. Twenty-three essays from various disciplines explore the music, cinema, television, fashion, literature, aesthetics, and fandoms associated with the subculture. They examine goth's many dimensions-including its melancholy, androgyny, spirituality, and perversity-and take readers inside locations in Los Angeles, Austin, Leeds, London, Buffalo, New York City, and Sydney. A number of the contributors are or have been participants in the subculture, and several draw on their own experiences.The volume's editors provide a rich history of goth, describing its play of resistance and consumerism; its impact on class, race, and gender; and its distinctive features as an "undead" subculture in light of post-subculture studies and other critical approaches. The essays include an interview with the distinguished fashion historian Valerie Steele; analyses of novels by Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, and Nick Cave; discussions of goths on the Internet; and readings of iconic goth texts from Bram Stoker's Dracula to James O'Barr's graphic novel The Crow. Other essays focus on gothic music, including seminal precursors such as Joy Division and David Bowie, and goth-influenced performers such as the Cure, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson. Gothic sexuality is explored in multiple ways, the subjects ranging from the San Francisco queercore scene of the 1980s to the increasing influence of fetishism and fetish play. Together these essays demonstrate that while its participants are often middle-class suburbanites, goth blurs normalizing boundaries even as it appears as an everlasting shadow of late capitalism.Contributors: Heather Arnet, Michael Bibby, Jessica Burstein, Angel M. Butts, Michael du Plessis, Jason Friedman, Nancy Gagnier, Ken Gelder, Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Joshua Gunn, Trevor Holmes, Paul Hodkinson, David Lenson, Robert Markley, Mark Nowak, Anna Powell, Kristen Schilt, Rebecca Schraffenberger, David Shumway, Carol Siegel, Catherine Spooner, Lauren Stasiak, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Popular culture
• Gender studies

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 11 avril 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822389705
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

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©  Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper  Designed by Heather Hensley Typeset in Mrs. Eaves by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

CONTE NTS

ix  Lauren M. E. Goodlad and Michael Bibby

I. Genders  Dark Admissions: Gothic Subculture and the Ambivalence of Misogyny and Resistance Joshua Gunn  Queens of the Damned: Women and Girls’ Participation in Two Gothic Subcultures Kristen Schilt  Peri Gothous: On the Art of Gothicizing Gender Trevor M. Holmes  Men in Black: Androgyny and Ethics inThe CrowandFight Club Lauren M. E. Goodlad

II. Performances  This Modern Goth (Explains Herself ) Rebecca Schraffenberger  Playing Dress Up: David Bowie and the Roots of Goth David Shumway and Heather Arnet  Undead Fashion: Nineties Style and the Perennial Return of Goth Catherine Spooner  ‘‘Goth Damage’’ and Melancholia: Reflections on Posthuman Gothic Identities Michael du Plessis

III. Localities  ‘‘To commit suicide in Buffalo is redundant’’: Music and Death in Zero City, – Mark Nowak

 ‘‘Ah am witness to its authenticity’’: Gothic Style in Postmodern Southern Writing Jason K. Friedman  The (Un)Australian Goth: Notes toward a Dislocated National Subject Ken Gelder

IV. Artifacts  Atrocity Exhibitions: Joy Division, Factory Records, and Goth Michael Bibby  Material Distinctions: A Conversation with Valerie Steele Jessica Burstein  Geek/Goth: Remediation and Nostalgia in Tim Burton’sEdward Scissorhands Robert Markley  The Authentic Dracula: Bram Stoker’s Hold on Vampiric Genres Nancy Gagnier

V. Communities  ‘‘When you kiss me, I want to die’’:Buffy the Vampire Slayerand Gothic Family Values Lauren Stasiak  The Cure, the Community, the Contempt! Angel M. Butts  ‘‘We are all individuals, but we’ve all got the same boots on!’’: Traces of Individualism within a Subcultural Community Paul Hodkinson

VI. Practices  That Obscure Object of Desire Revisited: Poppy Z. Brite and the Goth Hero as Masochist Carol Siegel  God’s Own Medicine: Religion and Parareligion in U.K. Goth Culture Anna Powell  Gothic Fetishism Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock  The Aesthetic Apostasy David Lenson

  

ACKNOWLE DG M E NTS

The idea for this volume began many years ago when two grad students col- laborated on a proposal for a panel on gothic rock music. Since that time goth subculture has enjoyed many transmutations and so has this project. In those early days Casey Finch was a fellow co-editor and his untimely death was a terrible blow. Many sympathetic spirits, inside and outside aca- demia, supported and encouraged us in our fitful starts. We thank all for their generosity, patience, and good grace. Goths in many parts of the world have shared their experiences with us: this book is, of course, dedi- cated to them. Though we cannot name everyone who deserves it, we thank Aidan, Anthony, Caren, Juliet, Kirstie, Lilith, Ron, Slutboy, Trevor and many more especially in Seattle, London, and Leeds. Count von Sexbat—or Simon, if we may—knows how crucial he was to the early stages of this project including his insightful comments on an early draft of the Introduction. We thank Mick Mercer for his advice and example. In Seattle, former colleagues including Srinivas Aravamudan, Kathleen Blake, Marshall Brown, Kate Cummings, Jason Friedman, Susan Jeffords, Ranji Khanna, Steve Shaviro, Henry Staten, John Toews, Priscilla Wald, France Winddance Twine, and Shawn Wong were most generous as were Dagni Bredesen, David Hennes- see, Tabitha Sparks, and Lauren Stasiak (now long past their student days). In Champaign-Urbana, Peter Garrett, Jed Esty, Trish Loughran, Michael Rothberg, Julia Saville, Siobhan Somerville, and Joe Valente were among those who supported this book in various ways. In Shippensburg, the En- glish Department faculty reading group (Sharon Harrow, Shari Horner, Kim Long, Shannon Wooden, and Richard Zumkhawala-Cook) provided much needed comment and encouragement. For their help with various parts of the manuscript we thank Michael du Plessis, Ellis Hanson, Paul Hodkinson, Robert Walser, and, especially, Tim Dean. For their patience and fortitude we thank all of our contributors. No project of this dura-