Date of Award
2010
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in English Composition
Department
English
First Advisor
Carlson, David
Second Advisor
Ruml, Ted
Third Advisor
Delgado, Juan
Abstract
Critic Fred Botting claims that the gothic genre is dead due to reader's assimilation of horror in their everyday lives. He cites violence on the news and graphic documentaries as ways in which people can be desensitized to gothic books and movies. This, according to Botting, results in a lack of expected reader/viewer reaction and is the basis of his assertion. This thesis examines three vampire novels: Dracula (1897), I Am Legend (1954), and Carrion Comfort (1984). These three novels were written over a span of one hundred years and published almost fifty years apart. When examined from a male gothic standpoint, as defined by Anne Williams, these novels provide a representative example of the gothic vampire genre and show that gothic genre is still effective for today's reader.
Recommended Citation
Hudson, Janis Haigwood, "Is gothic dead?:Tthe evolution of the vampire novel" (2010). Theses Digitization Project. 3681.
https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3681
