Review: Martin & Savoy, eds., American Gothic (1998)

[truepenny]

American Gothic: New Interventions in a National Narrative by Robert K. Martin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Lit crit is as prone to trends and fads as any other human endeavor, but the thing about good literary criticism is that it doesn't go out of date. The two essays in this collection that were great were great; the rest ranged from good to boring to my GOD that's a lot of Lacan. And the one essay I deeply disliked that was so busy disapprovingly theorizing the discourse about serial killers that it forgot that the victims were real people, too. I mean, theorize Ted Bundy all you want, but don't forget about Kimberly Leach.

Maggie Kilgour's essay, "Dr. Frankenstein Meets Dr. Freud," was a wide-ranging assessment of the gothic and its tropes that spends most of its time with The Silence of the Lambs. (Which, of COURSE it's gothic, how could it not be?) Kim Ian Michasiw's essay, "Some Stations of Suburban Gothic," aside from not being afraid to be funny, was a really interesting use of theory (unlike the crop of Lacanians). I'm not sure I entirely understood it---if you asked me the difference between a "station" and a "locale," I don't think I could tell you, except that stations are given to you/imposed on you by the social order; a locale is something you make for yourself---but I WANTED to. I may in fact go reread it and see if I can get my brain to wrap around the theory a little better.

I have a private list on Amazon called "gothic." It's so long now that I can't remember what's on it.



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