- Paperback: 232 pages
- Publisher: Duke University Press (Aug 22 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0822316633
- ISBN-13: 978-0822316633
- Product Dimensions: 23.3 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 399 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#567,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #17 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Gothic Revival
- #63 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Gothic
- #90 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > British
- See Complete Table of Contents
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In this academic work of film and literary criticism, Judith Halberstam examines the monster as cultural object. She discusses classic gothic texts such as Frankenstein and Dracula, and then looks at the impact of changing technology (horror movies with special effects) for depicting monsters. Her argument is that the gothic in its more lurid, unabashedly violent, and perverse forms may be more empowering to the reader/viewer than in its carefully articulated, understated, and sublimated forms. H-Net Reviews calls Skin Shows an "intelligent, well-informed, and provocative piece of writing" and writes that its "greatest strength ... is that it allows for other critics of the Gothic to proceed more self-consciously about the presuppositions that particularly psychoanalysis has introduced into the academic discussion." One caveat, though: the language is somewhat turgid, with awkward verbs such as "gothicize" and "metaphorize."
Review
""Skin Shows" is the Gothic book that many of us have been waiting for, and it is every bit as smart as we had hoped it would be. Halberstam's notion of monstrosity will change Gothic studies for good. The results are dazzling."--George E. Haggerty, University of California, Riverside
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A New Approach to Gothic,
By Andrew Ng Hock Soon "just a reader" (Perth, Western Australia Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Skin Shows - PB (Paperback)
Indeed, the literary genre that we know as the gothic is inexhaustible in its interpretive capacity. From Freud's theory of the Uncanny and Mourning/Melancholia, to Feminist theories and reader response approaches (such as that of Norman Holland's), the gothic as a literary outsider has come a long way from its inception as a marginal form of literature to become one of the most studied and complex form of writing. Halberstam's book is one of the latest critical offerings of reading the Gothic, and it is indeed a timely arrival of an otherwise over-determined reading of this particular genre from the various theoretical approaches (interesting as they may be). Halberstam's approach, grounded in history and racism, renews the gothic's early preoccupation with otherness and the fear of it, but which emphasizes the societal fear of the alien/foreign other, and not so much the struggle between the public and private selves (the beloved of psychoanalytical theory). Her most interesting chapter is the reading of Stoker's `Dracula' as an anti-semitic propoganda text; indeed, I have appropriated some of her ideas in my view on postcolonial gothic, for I find that her theoretical stance has much to offer in this new and under-emphasized aspect of gothic literature. Halberstam's careful and brilliant intertwining of psychoanalysis, race-relations theory (history) and literary deconstruction is also critically executed in clear, precise language. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to have a fresh outlook on gothic literature.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A New Approach to Gothic,
By Andrew Ng Hock Soon "just a reader" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Skin Shows - PB (Paperback)
Indeed, the literary genre that we know as the gothic is inexhaustible in its interpretive capacity. From Freud's theory of the Uncanny and Mourning/Melancholia, to Feminist theories and reader response approaches (such as that of Norman Holland's), the gothic as a literary outsider has come a long way from its inception as a marginal form of literature to become one of the most studied and complex form of writing. Halberstam's book is one of the latest critical offerings of reading the Gothic, and it is indeed a timely arrival of an otherwise over-determined reading of this particular genre from the various theoretical approaches (interesting as they may be). Halberstam's approach, grounded in history and racism, renews the gothic's early preoccupation with otherness and the fear of it, but which emphasizes the societal fear of the alien/foreign other, and not so much the struggle between the public and private selves (the beloved of psychoanalytical theory). Her most interesting chapter is the reading of Stoker's `Dracula' as an anti-semitic propoganda text; indeed, I have appropriated some of her ideas in my view on postcolonial gothic, for I find that her theoretical stance has much to offer in this new and under-emphasized aspect of gothic literature. Halberstam's careful and brilliant intertwining of psychoanalysis, race-relations theory (history) and literary deconstruction is also critically executed in clear, precise language. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to have a fresh outlook on gothic literature.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Why Confuse the Issue with Academese?,
By Birt Acres "Cinemaniac" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Skin Shows - PB (Paperback)
Judith Halberstam's "Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters" (1995) makes two major points about Gothic horror: first about texts, that "[t]he production of fear in a literary text . . . emanates from a vertiginous excess of meaning" (2) and, second about film, that skin is the boundary which is challenged, brutalized, and sutured together in new configurations--which destroys any simple psychoanalytic reading one might make of the horror film. The book is good, but it relies far too heavily on "clever" postmodernisms. Here's an example: "Hannibal the Cannibal and Buffalo Bill are Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as much as they are Dracula and Frankenstein. Jekyll, of course, produces Hyde from within his own psyche and he cannibalizes him when the pressure is on. Hyde is an incredibly close relative to Buffalo Bill--he too is 'hide-bound,' trapped in his skin, hidden by his hide and hiding from the law" (173). The problem is that if everything flows into everything else (if we're only clever enough to find a verbal connection) then what exactly am I supposed to learn from the book? Too often, in my humble opinion, postmodernism is simply an excuse for pedantic writing which is all surface and no depth--while denying that anyone has a right to challenge the surface and lack of depth.
|
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Gothic
- Books > Entertainment > Movies > Genre Films
- Books > Entertainment > Movies > History & Criticism
- Books > Horror > British
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > British
- Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Criticism & Theory > Semiotics
- Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Gothic Revival
- Books > Medicine
- Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Media Studies
- Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology > Culture
- Books > Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 > Humanities
- Books > Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 > Medicine
- Books > Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 > Science
- Books > Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 > Social Sciences
- Books > Science > History & Philosophy > History of Technology
- Books > Science > Medicine
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
