A01=Catherine Belsey
Author_Catherine Belsey
Category=DSB
Category=DSG
Category=DSK
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Ghosts
Gothic
Hamlet
Homer
narrative
uncanny
women
Product details
- ISBN 9781474417365
- Weight: 290g
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 04 Sep 2019
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Considers the ways ghost stories appeal to our uneasy relationship with conventional good sense
What do they want, the ghosts that, even in the age of science, still haunt our storytelling? Catherine Belsey’s answer to the question traces Gothic writing and tales of the uncanny from the ancient past to the present – from Homer and the Icelandic sagas to Lincoln in the Bardo. Taking Shakespeare’s Ghost in Hamlet as a turning point in the history of the genre, she uncovers the old stories the play relies on, as well as its influence on later writing. This ghostly trail is vividly charted through accredited records of apparitions and fiction by such writers as Ann Radcliffe, Washington Irving, Emily Brontë, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, M. R. James and Susan Hill. In recent blockbusting movies, too, ghost stories bring us fragments of news from the unknown.
Traces examples of ghost stories from Homer to the present dayDescribes the aspects of storytelling designed to involve readersIncludes stories of attested apparitions, as well as fiction by a wide range of both canonical and popular authors
Catherine Belsey was a critic and cultural historian. After an academic career at Cambridge, Cardiff and Swansea, she visited the University of Derby for discussions with the students. She lived in Cambridge and chaired a range of reading groups in the area on an occasional basis. (dec.February 2021)
