Executive Dean of Arts and Sciences Published Gothic Literature

Document Type

Media Release

Publication Date

Spring 16-11-2009

Publisher Name

The University of Notre Dame, Sydney Campus

Publication Place

Sydney

Abstract

The Executive Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at The University of Notre Dame Australia has had a productive year with two new books being published on Gothic literature.

His first book, Peripheral Fear: Transformations of the Gothic in Canadian and Australian Fiction, is a sole-authored publication that looks at the fascinating history of the Gothic genre and how it was rewritten by colonial and postcolonial writers to speak to the Australian and Canadian experience.

The study examines foundational literatures of Canada and Australia but also contemporary works by writers such as Margaret Atwood, Kate Grenville, Louis Nowra, Robertson Davies and Patrick White.

Professor Ken Gelder, an international authority on genre fiction, has called the book “a meticulously researched ride through the gothic in all its New World literary incarnations, giving us a powerful argument for [the Gothic’s] continuing ‘counter-discursive’ potential." The book is published by Peter Lang, Brussels. His second book, Unsettled Remains: Canadian Literature and the Postcolonial Gothic is a co-edited collection with Canadian academic Cynthia Sugars.

The work examines similarly challenging rewritings of the Gothic, but with a particular emphasis on how the Gothic, the Canadian and the Postcolonial come together to challenge dominant literary, political and social narratives. The volume has just been published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Asked about his view on this achievement Professor Turcotte answers simply, “For me this is the culmination of a 20-year love affair with the Gothic in all its ghastly literary forms.”

The books will be launched at Gleebooks, Glebe, Sydney, by eminent Australian scholar Professor Emeritus Elizabeth Webby at 6:30 on Friday 27 November.

Media contact:

Moira Saunders 02 8204 4407

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS