Recycling, Adaptation, and Aesthetic

Words Have Power

In this episode, we take a high-level view of what the Gothic does in the twenty-first century. How is this different from what's come before? Using three pieces of literary criticism, we apply the theory to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", and two of its recent adaptations, Mike Flanagan's TV series of the same name, and What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher.

Want to read along with the podcast? You can buy all the books as a bundle from brilliant online independent bookseller Bert's Books here: https://bertsbooks.co.uk/product/words-have-power-gothic-fiction-bundle/

Subscribe to the podcast and receive a super discount for the Bert's bundle, plus further learning materials, at substack.com/@wordshavepower or patreon.com/wordshavepowerpodcast

Huge thanks to Ben Moxon for composing and performing this season's music. You can find out more about Ben here: https://crudely-formed-chords.bandcamp.com

References:

Botting, F. (2002). "Aftergothic". In The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction, ed. J. E. Hogle. Cambridge University Press. pp. 277-300.

Carlson, M. (2003). The Haunted Stage: Theatre As Memory. University of Michigan Press.

Flanagan, M. (2023). The Fall of the House of Usher. Netflix.

Kingfisher, T. (2022). What Moves the Dead. Titan Books.

Poe, E. A. (2021 [1839]). "The Fall of the House of Usher". In Edgar Allan Poe: The Ultimate Collection. King Solomon. pp. 161-174.

Spooner, C. (2017). Post-Millennial Gothic: The Rise of Happy Gothic. Bloomsbury Academic.