Gothicka

The gothic genre has induced various forms of "pleasurable anxiety" since its emergence in the mid-18th century as an "anticlassical reaction to the Enlightenment rationalism." Providing examples from literature, television and film, comics, and video games, Nelson (creative writing, Goddard Coll.; The Secret Life of Puppets) explains how the genre is in part an expression of the "fantasy pop culture religion" she names "faux Catholic," which initially acted in the vacuum left by the departure of pre-Reformation religious beliefs and is still exemplified in works such as The Exorcist and The Da Vinci Code. Nelson observes that the gothic supernatural has evolved from offering "sheer terror, with no prospect of salvation" to, these days, showing "more ambiguous shadings between good and evil," a shift especially notable in recent vampires who have acted as "stand-ins for AIDS, racial bigotry, sexual orientation, and 'the terrors of intimacy'; for the transition from adolescence to adulthood…and on and on." Additionally, Nelson analyzes gothic's relationships with sentimental romances, e.g., in Jane Eyre and the "Twilight" series, and probes the genre's future.