The following list is merely meant to suggest the range of the Gothic—especially as it reaches across different cultural traditions with themes of sexuality and non-normative family relations, including feminist, queer, and trans issues. In some cases, the contours of the Gothic intersect allied genres such as magical realism or Afro-futurism. When possible, I chose shorter works for pedagogical reasons; I often assign students one longer text to read independently during a course, which they either write on or present to the class.
Eighteenth-century British
Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
Reeve, The Old English Baron
Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent
Beckford, Vathek
Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach
Lewis, The Monk
Radcliffe, The Italian
Austen, Northanger Abbey
Nineteenth-century British
Wordsworth, The Borderers
Coleridge, “Christabel”
Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor
Hogg, Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
Byron, “Manfred”
Keats, “Lamia”
Polidori, The Vampyre
C. Rossetti, “Goblin Market”
Beddoes, Selected Poetry
M. Shelley, Frankenstein
Peacock, Nightmare Abbey
Dickens, Great Expectations
Collins, “A Terribly Strange Bed”
Swinburne, “Anactoria”
Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night
E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights
C. Brontë, Jane Eyre
Le Fanu, “A Chapter in the History of the Tyrone Family”
Darley, Nepenthe
Stoker, Dracula
Ruskin, “The Nature of Gothic”
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey
Gaskell, “The Grey Woman”
Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Twentieth-century British
Wells, The Croquet Player
Waugh, The Loved One
Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
Murdoch, Bruno’s Dream
Woolf, Orlando
Lawrence, The Fox
Peake, Titus Alone
Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”
O’Brien, Casualties of Peace
Theory and Criticism
Gilbert and Gubar, The Madwomen in the Attic
Sedgwick, “The Character in the Veil: Imagery of the Surface in the Gothic Novel”
Litvak, Strange Gourmets: Sophistication, Theory, and the Novel
Paglia, Sexual Personae
Castle, The Female Thermometer
Ng (Ed.), Asian Gothic: Essays on Literature, Film, and Anime
Punter (Ed.), A New Companion to the Gothic
Baldick (Ed.), The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales
Haggerty, Queer Gothic
Wester, African-American Gothic: Screams from Shadowed Places
Palmer, Lesbian Gothic: Transgressive Fictions
Ontario Gothic
Brown, Wieland
Irving, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
Hawthorne, “The Minister’s Black Veil”
Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware
Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
James, The Turn of the Screw
Davies, The Rebel Angels
Atwood, Surfacing
Munro, “Meneseteung”
Updike, The Witches of Eastwick
Oates, Foxfire
Zentner, “Touch”
Southern Gothic
Poe, “The Pit and the Pendulum”
Twain, No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger
Bierce, Ghost and Horror Stories
Chopin, The Awakening
Williams, Suddenly, Last Summer
Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
O’Connor, Wise Blood
Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms
McCullers, The Member of the Wedding
Dickey, Deliverance
McCarthy, Child of God
Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces
Wilcox, Hunk City
Franklin, Smonk
Letts, Killer Joe
Russell, Swamplandia!
African-American Gothic
Chestnutt, “The Conjure Woman’s Revenge”
Toomer, Cane
Ellison, Invisible Man
Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Morrison, Beloved
Baraka, The System of Dante’s Hell
Reed, Mumbo Jumbo
Whitehead, The Intuitionist
Wilson, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Parks, Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World
Wideman, “Fever”
Moss, Small Congregations
Elkins, Blue Yodel
Native American Gothic
Silko, Almanac of the Dead
Welch, Winter in the Blood
Erdrich, “Fleur”
Alexie, Tonto and the Lone Ranger Fist-Fight in Heaven
King, Green Grass, Running Water
Robinson, Traplines
Condor (Ed.), Windigo: An Anthology of Fact and Fantastic Fiction
Santee Frazier, Dark Thirty
Hispanic Gothic
Bécquer, Legends
Unamuno, “The Madness of Doctor Montarco”
Borges, The Book of Imaginary Beings
Perucho, Natural History
Arenas, Graveyard of Angels
Sarduy, Cobra
Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind
Postmodern Gothic
West, Day of the Locust
Barthelme, Snow White
Hawkes, Second Skin
Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
Johnson, Jesus’ Son
Roth, Sabbath’s Theater
Rushdie, Midnight’s Children
Lem, The Investigation
Kawabata, The House of the Sleeping Beauties
Abe, The Woman in the Dunes
Mishima, Confessions of a Mask
Murikami, “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”
Winterson, The Daylight Gate
Crowley, Little, Big
Self, Cock and Bull
Palahniuk, Haunted
Sondheim, Sweeny Todd
Graphic Novels
Karasik and Auster, City of Glass
Bechdel, Fun Home
Moore and Lloyd, V for Vendetta
Gaiman, The Sandman
Sim, Melmoth
Wood, Fluttter
TV
Twilight Zone
Twin Peaks
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
X-Files
Arrested Development
Dexter
Supernatural
True Blood
Breaking Bad
Film
Polanski, Rosemary’s Baby
Almodovar, The Skin I Live In
Haneke, Funny Games
Demme, Silence of the Lambs
Cronenberg, eXistenZ
Sholder, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2
Korine, Gummo
Jarman, Jubilee
Waters, Desperate Living
Haynes, Poison
Jenkins, Monster
Coen Brothers, Fargo
Will Cordeiro, Northern Arizona University
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