Contemporary Gothic Reaktion Books Focus On Contemporary Issues Catherine Spooner by Catherine Spooner 9781861893017, 1861893019 instant download after payment.

In Contemporary Gothic, Catherine Spooner probes the reasons behind the prevalence of the Gothic in popular culture & how it has inspired innovative new work in film, literature, music, & art. Spooner traces the emergence of the Gothic subculture over the past few decades & examines the various aspects of contemporary society that revolve around the grotesque, abject, & artificial. The Gothic is continually resituated in different spheres of culture, she reveals, as she explores the transplantation of the “street” Goth style to haute couture runway looks by fashion designers. 

The Gothic also appears in a number of surprisingly diverse representations, & Spooner considers them all, from the artistic excesses of Jake & Dinos Chapman to the fashions of Alexander McQueen, and from the mind-bending films of David Lynch to the abnormal postmodern subjects of Joel-Peter Witkin’s photography. 

In an engaging way, Contemporary Gothic argues that this style ultimately balances a number of contradictions—the grotesque & incorporeal, authentic self-expression & campiness, mass popularity & cult appeal, comfort & outrage—and these contradictions make the Gothic a crucial expression of contemporary cultural currents. Whether seeking to understand the stories behind the TV show Supernatural or to extract deeper meanings from modern literature, Contemporary Gothic is a lively & virtually unparalleled study of the modern Gothic sensibility that pervades popular culture today. (20070106)