Canadian Gothic: Literature, History, and the Spectre of Self-Invention (Gothic Literary Studies) - Hardcover

"Cynthia Sugars's "Canadian Gothic" is a groundbreaking study of the history of English-Canadian Gothic from its colonial beginnings to the present, offering a depth and breadth of analysis that is unprecedented and comprehensive in its scope. This is a vital contribution to the study of Canadian literature; its originality, elegance, and readability make it required reading for scholars and students of English-Canadian literature, indigenous studies, and literary theory. Sugars's careful unpacking of the absent-presence of ghosts in English-Canadian literature of all genres is extremely persuasive and utterly brilliant."--Jennifer Andrews, University of New Brunswick Accessible and engaging. . . . [Sugars] makes her arguments in clear, unambiguous language that invites the reader to truly consider her thesis. "Canadian Gothic" is a book that not only makes the reader think, but also can teach the reader how to think in possibly new and more inclusive ways about what will no doubt be an enduring issue of the twenty-first century in this country now called Canada: namely our separate and collective pasts. --Yvette Nolan "Literary Review of Canada "" Cynthia Sugars s "Canadian Gothic" is a groundbreaking study of the history of English-Canadian Gothic from its colonial beginnings to the present, offering a depth and breadth of analysis that is unprecedented and comprehensive in its scope. This is a vital contribution to the study of Canadian literature; its originality, elegance, and readability make it required reading for scholars and students of English-Canadian literature, indigenous studies, and literary theory. Sugars s careful unpacking of the absent-presence of ghosts in English-Canadian literature of all genres is extremely persuasive and utterly brilliant. --Jennifer Andrews, University of New Brunswick" "Cynthia Sugars's Canadian Gothic is a groundbreaking study of the history of English-Canadian Gothic from its colonial beginnings to the present, offering a depth and breadth of analysis that is unprecedented and comprehensive in its scope. This is a vital contribution to the study of Canadian literature; its originality, elegance, and readability make it required reading for scholars and students of English-Canadian literature, indigenous studies, and literary theory. Sugars's careful unpacking of the absent-presence of ghosts in English-Canadian literature of all genres is extremely persuasive and utterly brilliant."--Jennifer Andrews, University of New Brunswick "Accessible and engaging. . . . [Sugars] makes her arguments in clear, unambiguous language that invites the reader to truly consider her thesis. Canadian Gothic is a book that not only makes the reader think, but also can teach the reader how to think in possibly new and more inclusive ways about what will no doubt be an enduring issue of the twenty-first century in this country now called Canada: namely our separate and collective pasts."--Yvette Nolan "Literary Review of Canada "

This book explores the Gothic tradition in Canadian literature by tracing a distinctive reworking of the British Gothic in Canada. It traces the ways the Gothic genre was reinvented for a specifically Canadian context. On the one hand, Canadian writers expressed anxiety about the applicability of the British Gothic tradition to the colonies; on the other, they turned to the Gothic for its vitalising rather than unsettling potential. After charting this history of Gothic infusion, Canadian Gothic turns its attention to the body of Aboriginal and diasporic writings that respond to this discourse of national self-invention from a post-colonial perspective. These counter-narratives unsettle the naturalising force of this invented history, rendering the sense of Gothic comfort newly strange. The Canadian Gothic tradition has thus been a conflicted one, which reimagines the Gothic as a form of cultural sustenance. This volume offers an important reconsideration of the Gothic legacy in Canada.