Introduction to the Gothic Handbook Series: Welcome to Hell

The introduction to the Palgrave Gothic Handbook: Modern Gothic 1918 to the Present, edited by Clive Bloom, Professor Emeritus, Middlesex University UK, is the most comprehensive short introduction to the modern gothic milieu now available. Written for those engaged in academic research, but also accessible to students, the chapter is packed with analysis of the genre in both theory and practice as it appeared in the last hundred years. Starting in 1918 with the impact of film on the genre’s development, and moving through its many and varied international incarnations, the chapter chronicles the history of the gothic milieu from the movies to gaming platforms and internet memes, through television and theatre, as well as looking at fashion, music and popular culture: a multilayered, multi-ethnic, even a transgendered experience as we move into the twenty-first century.