Author Description

A collection of essays on young adult Gothic fiction and what it reveals about our changing society. The contemporary resurgence of the Gothic in young adult fiction signals the anxieties and hopes of young people in the twenty-first century. The essays in this collection demonstrate how the shifting conception of adolescence as a liminal stage is mobilized through Gothic spaces and concepts. As the Gothic works to define what it means to be human--particularly in relation to gender, race, and identity--the volume also examines how contemporary shifts and flashpoints in identity politics are being negotiated under the metaphoric cloak of monstrosity.