American Women's Ghost Stories in the Gilded Age

Anglophone postcolonial studies has been characterized by its secular nature. Yet as the first generation of scholars grapples with mortality, a yearning for spiritual meaning is emerging in many texts. This study synthesizes the sacred language used in these texts with critical theory in order to create a holistic frame for interpretive analysis.  

Acknowledgements Preface 1. 'Fitted to a Frame': Picturing the Gothic Female Body 2. 'Handled With a Chain': Gilman's 'The Yellow Wall-Paper' and The Dangers of the Arabesque 3. 'Dancing Like a Bomb Abroad': Dawson's 'An Itinerant House' and the Haunting Cityscape 4. 'Solemnest of Industries': Wilkins' 'The Southwest Chamber' and Memorial Culture 5. 'Space Stares all Around': Peattie's 'The House that Was Not' and the (Un)Haunted Landscape 6. 'My Labor and My Leisure Too': Wynne's 'The Little Room' and Commodity Culture Afterword