Suburban Gothic

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the subgenre. For the 2014 film, see Suburban Gothic (film).

Suburban Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction, art, film and television, focused on anxieties associated with the creation of suburban communities, particularly in the United States and the Western world, from the 1950s and 1960s onwards.

Criteria

It often, but not exclusively, relies on the supernatural or elements of science fiction that have been in wider Gothic literature, but manifested in a suburban setting.

Description

Suburban Gothic is defined by Bernice M. Murphy as "a subgenre of the wider

American Gothic tradition which dramatises anxieties arising from the mass urbanisation of the United States and usually features suburban settings, preoccupations and protagonists".[1] She argues that a common trope of the suburban Gothic is the danger within a family or neighbourhood, rather than an external threat.[2] Teenagers and children are often major protagonists or sources of threat, and characteristic conflicts often focus on issues of individuality and conformity.[3]

Literature

Important early works identified with the subgenre include Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954) and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (1959).[4] A more recent book identified within the genre is Bret Easton Ellis' mock memoir Lunar Park (2005).[5]

Film

Important films include

Truman Show (1998), Little Children (2006),[12] The Girl Next Door (2007), The Sisterhood of Night (2014), The Invitation (2015),[12] Snowtown (2011)[6] and The Babadook (2014).[14]

Television

The works of

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, and Desperate Housewives have also been seen as dealing with concerns about hidden Gothic worlds behind the suburban façade.[15] Another televised example is the Emmy-winning American Horror Story.[6]

Visual Art

Australian visual artist Tanja Stark explores themes of Suburban Gothic and the Sublime Divine, drawing from a background as a social worker, domestic violence counsellor and upbringing in the Baptist church.[16] She approaches her creation through a symbolic lens, and sees the genre of suburban gothic as influenced by psycholanalytical ideas of the Jungian shadow, and the parts of domestic life that lie beneath conscious awareness. Her art explores these unconscious desires and feelings and their powerful influence on waking life, particularly when they are associated with serious psychological trauma. In accordance with Jungian ideas, where the 'shadow' is not acknowledged or integrated, but is repressed, projected or inflated, the darker aspects of the psyche may emerge in ways that can be dangerous or destructive to mental or physical well-being of the individual and those around them, a key tension in Suburban Gothic art. [17] [18]


See also

Notes

  1. ISBN 0-230-21810-5, p. 2
    .
  2. ISBN 0-230-21810-5
    , p. 3.
  3. ISBN 0-230-21810-5
    , pp. 2–3.
  4. ISBN 0-230-21810-5
    , p. 15.
  5. ^ Scott, A. O. (August 14, 2005). "'Lunar Park': Hero and Heroin".
  6. ^ a b c d e f The 15 Best Suburban Gothic Films — Page 2 — Taste of Cinema
  7. ISBN 0-521-79466-8
    , p. xxv.
  8. ISBN 0-230-21810-5
    , p. 4.
  9. ^ a b The Anadromist (2012) American Gothic Films: An Incomplete List. The Anadromous Life, [blog] November 7, 2012, Available at: [1] Accessed: December 9, 2012.
  10. ISBN 1-58729-349-8
    , p. 240.
  11. ISBN 9781119210412
    .
  12. ^
    ISBN 9781118608425
    .
  13. ^
    ISBN 9780814756096
    .
  14. ^ The 15 Best Suburban Gothic Films — Taste of Cinema
  15. ISBN 0-230-21810-5
    , p. 166.
  16. ^ Stark, T (15 March 2022). "tanjastark_artist".
  17. ^ "Lecture: Suburban Gothic and the Sublime Divine, Tanja Stark for C.G.Jung Society of Queensland". C.G. Jung Society of Queensland. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  18. ^ Stark, Tanja. "Spiralling Undercurrents : Melbourne Jung Society Lecture March 2022". C.G Jung Society Melbourne.
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