Reading Gothic Fiction

This is the first full-length analysis of Gothic to draw on the ideas of the noted Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. Historical analyses of works including Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho, Matthew Lewis's The Monk, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein demonstrate how the Gothic novel incorporates a range of contemporary literary and non-literary discourses. The book also analyses the question of whether Gothic can be seen as a characteristically female genre.