Women's Authorship and the Early Gothic : Legacies and Innovations

This edited collection examines Gothic works written by womenauthors in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with aspecific focus on the novels and chapbooks produced by less widelycommercially and critically popular writers. Bringing these authors tothe forefront of contemporary critical examinations of the Gothic,chapters in this collection examine how these works impacted thedevelopment of 'women's writing' and Gothic writing during this time.Offering readers an original look at the literary landscape of the periodand the roles of the creative women who defined it, the collectionargues that such works reflected a female-centred literary subculturedefined by creative exchange and innovation, one that still shapesperceptions of the Gothic mode today. This collection, then, presentsan alternative understanding of the legacy of women Gothic authors,anchoring this understanding in complex historical and social contextsand providing a new world of Gothic literature for readers to explore.