Gothic Affect: An Alternative Approach to Critical Models of the Contemporary Gothic

Abstract

This chapter argues for new paradigms in Gothic scholarship, based on an engagement with current intersections that can be traced between new media and Gothic aesthetics. In aesthetic terms, the debates regarding authenticity and legitimacy that form a core of Gothic praxis and studies might be woven productively with the clash regarding creativity and derivativeness in the field of cultural production. Henry Jenkins extends McLuhan's preoccupations into the 21st century, identifying how our interactions with media should be understood in terms of 'convergence culture'. The media successes of recent years are the likes of iTunes, Netflix, and Kindle, while traditional book publishers, film studios, and television companies have had to adapt rapidly to this new media ecology. From the Virtual Reality horrors of The Lawnmower Man to the monstrously mechanical enforced prostheses of the Saw franchise superintended by the diminutive, tricycle-riding automaton 'igsaw', recent texts have repeatedly probed the boundaries of the human and non-human.