Ghosts from the Past: Gothic and Postcolonial Themes in 19th and 20th Century Novels

This book focuses on genre studies and examines Gothic's outstanding characteristics like loose plot, hidden crimes and ruined settings. Anne Bronte redefines Gothic by writing in a fragmentary way. This storytelling is further examined in Jane Eyre. The story resists closure because Jane cannot establish peace with the characters that haunt her. The adage "no happy woman writes" makes us reflect on the unhappy life of Mary Shelley which led her to write her "monstrous" novel, Frankenstein. Instead of literary criticism that stems from Romantic and feminist sensibilities, there is a new interpretation of the non-western character, Safie, whose story is a variation from the other tales of catastrophes. Broad categories fail to define genres, like Eliade and Devi's works, Bengal Nights and Na Hanyate. We reexamine the limitations of various forms of life-writing like memoirs and autobiographies and the encounters and clashes between eastern and western cultures. We also examine the form of Gothic and swashbucklers, two popular, successful types of film. Western and eastern cultures differ, especially when settings and plots are reinvented to create blockbusters, and themes are revised to suit the palates of eastern audiences. The last essay focuses on transformations of Gothic from Victorian to contemporary times. In a wide assortment of mysteries, the common themes of a missing woman and misinterpretations of the detective heroine show how settings of Gothic have changed from 18th to 21st Century. Bicentenaries of Shelley and Brontes were recently celebrated, discussing their impact on contemporary times, so it is time to look at their novels in a new way.