Nightmare on Main Street

Description:

In an assessment of American culture on the eve of the millennium, Mark Edmundson asks why we're determined to be haunted, courting the Gothic at every turn - and, at the same time, committed to escape through any new scheme for ready-made transcendence. Nightmare on Main Street depicts a culture suffused in the Gothic, not just in novels and films but even in the nonfictive realms of politics and academic theories, TV news and talk shows, various therapies, and discourses on AIDS and the environment. What, Edmundson asks, does the ascendancy of the Gothic in the 1990s tell us about our own day? And what of another trend, seemingly unrelated - the widespread belief that re-creating oneself is as easy as making a wish? Looking at the world according to Forrest Gump, Edmundson shows how this parallel culture actually works reciprocally with the Gothic.

subjects: American Horror tales,  Angels in literature,  Gothic revival (Literature),  History,  History and criticism,  Horror films,  Horror tales, American,  Popular culture,  Sadomasochism in literature,  Horror tales, history and criticism,  Horror films, history and criticism,  Popular culture, united states,  New York Times reviewed

Places: United States

Times: 20th century