Gothic Metaphysics

Book excerpt: We live in the time of the Anthropocene, which calls for a paradigm shift in our relation to this planet. One of the themes of this book is to call attention to the shift. This book is a challenge to Literary/Gothic and Cultural Studies: The case for rethinking approaches to gothic fiction is built on an extended critique of Freudian assumptions and antinomies of the occult (associated with mechanism, materialism and classical physics), a critique informed by Jung and an engaging re-evaluation of mystical, animist and alchemical modes of thought (linked to quantum physics, new materialism along with, curiously but effectively, Derridean deconstruction and cryptonomy). Readers will benefit from the depth and breadth of the research in this book that draws upon philosophical, anthropological, psychoanalytic and scientific thought to engage with a literary genre in a way that changes how we think about Gothic Studies.