Gothic Cinema An introduction

Gothic Cinema closes a gap in German-language film discourse: for the first time, the volume sheds light on a hitherto little-discussed film context. It considers Gothic Cinema as a form of unofficial historiography that allows a look not only at the history of film and its technique, but also at moral concepts, gender relations, collective fears or aesthetic currents. A delimitation and definition of the term and the central elements of the Gothic are followed by a comprehensive historical overview from 1896 to the present day. Three in-depth analyses of individual post-2015 gothic films and television series round out the review. On the one hand, the examples examined are representative in terms of typical elements, motifs or topoi, and on the other hand, they exhibit peculiarities and breaks that prove fruitful for a cultural and media studies investigation.

Definition of terms and delimitation.- Elements, motifs, themes.- Gothic Cinema before 1960.- Gothic Cinema from 1960 onwards.- Gothic around 2000: old monsters in new guises.- Between old and new.- The Haunting of Hill House (2018).- Dracula (2020).- Crimson Peak (2015).

Dr. Katharina Rein is a research assistant at the University of Potsdam. She received her PhD in Cultural Studies from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2019. Her dissertation on the cultural and media history of stage magic in the late 19th century was awarded the Jubilee Prize for Young Scholars by Büchner Verlag. Her academic work has been published in four languages to date.