Religious Horror and the Ecogothic

Religious Horror and the Ecogothic explores the intersections of Anglophone Christianity and the Ecogothic, a subgenre that explores the ecocritical in Gothic literature, film, and media. Acknowledging the impact of Christian ideologies upon interpretations of human relationships with the environment, the Ecogothic in turn interrogates spiritual identity and humanity’s darker impulses in relation to ecological systems. Through a survey of Ecogothic texts from the eighteenth century to the present day, this book illuminates the ways in which a Christianized understanding of hierarchy, dominion, fear, and sublimity shapes reactions to the environment and conceptions of humanity’s place therein. It interrogates the discourses which inform environmental policy, as well as definitions of the ＂human＂ in a rapidly changing world.

Mary Going is British Academy postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sheffield.

Kathleen Hudson is adjunct professor at the United States Naval Academy and Anne Arundel Community College, and guest lecturer and contributor for the Rosenbach Museum and Library and the Gothic Women project.