Society, Culture, and the Gothic | Teresa Derrickson (Essay Date March 2001)
TERESA DERRICKSON (ESSAY DATE MARCH 2001)
SOURCE: Derrickson, Teresa. "Race and the Gothic Monster: The Xenophobic Impulse of Louisa May Alcott's 'Taming a Tartar.'" American Transcendental Quarterly 15, no. 1 (March 2001): 43-58.
In the following essay, Derrickson examines Alcott's sensationalist short story "Taming a Tartar," and asserts that "[b]y tracing the careful way in which the 'monstrous' nemesis of the narrative's triumphant protagonist embodies nineteenth-century fears of racial degradation, this essay opens up new meaning in Alcott's work and underscores the infiltrating power of the Gothic impetus."
In her study entitled Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters, Judith Halberstam concludes her rereading of the Gothic monster by implicating more than just the horror genre in the veiled construction of social prejudice. Warning against the hegemonic impulse that runs...
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