Abstract

This chapter surveys and evaluates Gothic criticism and theory over the last century, from the early accounts of J. M. S. Tompkins and Montague Summers through to feminist, Marxist and psychoanalytic approaches in the last four decades. The chapter demonstrates the ways in which Gothic shapes, and is also shaped by, theoretical perspectives: as a cultural practice, Gothic is a matter of ceaseless, self-conscious reinvention, and the critical interpretation it provokes must be equally reflexive and capable of transformation.