Short description:

This book offers an original and innovative study of how the intersection of the Doppelgänger and the Gothic reveals repressed aspects of our singular and collective past, while also serving as a lens to investigate ourselves and our historical moment. The concept of the doppelgänger has seen a resurgence in popular culture, with films and series like The Haunting of Bly Manor, Us, and Dark exploring themes of doubles, twins, and clones. These narratives transform familiar worlds into uncanny, threatening environments filled with shadows and danger, reflecting the combative, partisan nature of the early 21st century. Key concepts explored in this book include the psychological and cultural implications of doppelgängers, the Gothic's role in expressing societal fears, and the ways in which these narratives mirror our own ideological divides. Through expert analysis, the authors uncover how these dark doubles, with their malevolent intentions, symbolize the fractures within ourselves and our world, creating a Gothicized reality that threatens our very existence. This book is essential for scholars of Gothic literature, cultural studies, and psychology, as well as anyone interested in understanding the deeper meanings behind popular narratives of doubles and the uncanny. It invites readers to explore how we are living in truly Gothic times.

Simon Bacon is an Independent Scholar based in Poznań, Poland. He has edited and authored 30+ books on various subjects including Gothic: A Reader (2018), Horror: A Companion (2019), Nosferatu in the 21st Century (2023), Future Folk Horror (2023), The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire (2024), and The Palgrave Handbook of the Zombie (forthcoming).

Long description:

This book offers an original and innovative study of how the intersection of the Doppelgänger and the Gothic reveals repressed aspects of our singular and collective past, while also serving as a lens to investigate ourselves and our historical moment. The concept of the doppelgänger has seen a resurgence in popular culture, with films and series like The Haunting of Bly Manor, Us, and Dark exploring themes of doubles, twins, and clones. These narratives transform familiar worlds into uncanny, threatening environments filled with shadows and danger, reflecting the combative, partisan nature of the early 21st century. Key concepts explored in this book include the psychological and cultural implications of doppelgängers, the Gothic's role in expressing societal fears, and the ways in which these narratives mirror our own ideological divides. Through expert analysis, the authors uncover how these dark doubles, with their malevolent intentions, symbolize the fractures within ourselves and our world, creating a Gothicized reality that threatens our very existence. This book is essential for scholars of Gothic literature, cultural studies, and psychology, as well as anyone interested in understanding the deeper meanings behind popular narratives of doubles and the uncanny. It invites readers to explore how we are living in truly Gothic times

Table of Contents:

Introduction.- SECTION ONE TWINS AND CLONES.- The Ideology of Twinship Utopia, Purity, and Danger.- Facing the Shadow Orphan Black, Feminism, and Personhood.- Do Any Lives Matter? Polyvalent Representations of Evil in The Divine.- Self-Absorbed Conjoined Twins and the Threat of Intrasubjectivity in Video Games.- Revisiting the Fabulous Mantle Twins The Gothic Resonance of Dead Ringers in the Twenty-First Century.- Conjoined Twins Disjoined Making a Case for Basket Case.- A Pair of Hearts Are Hollow Graves The Lycanthropic Twin in Contemporary Horror and Fantasy Literature.- Reflecting the Vampire How the Use of Twins in the Vampire Genre can Engender the Uncanny.- It?s as Though We?ve All Been Here Before Seeing Double in the Overlook Hotel.- Lovecraftian Dualities and Nonhuman Bodies The Case of the Whateley Twins in The Dunwich Horror.- SECTION TWO DOPPELGÄNGERS.- She-Hulk Attorney at Law and Doppelgänger.- A Vindication of Carlos Ruiz Zafón?s Young Adult Fiction Intertextuality in The Watcher in the Shadows Las luces de septiembre] (1995).- Good Weather for Gory Doppelgängers Ecomonstrous Doubles, Eidolons, and Fetches in Three Tales by R A n Lafferty.- Malevolent Mirrors, Dark Doppelgängers and Corrupt Copies Represented in Children?s Television Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Adventure Television.- The Terror Within and Without Iain Banks? Complicity.- You are Not Evil to Me You Were Necessary Pathologising Malevolent Alters in Split (2016) and Glass (2019).- Blood of the State Cloning in the World of Judge Dredd.- Looking like dolls come alive Doubling, Doppelgängers and the Maternal Inheritance of Uncanny Incest in Virginia Andrews? Dollanganger Saga.- David?s Dreams of Doubles Lynch and the Doppelgänger.- A Copy of the Body, but Not the Soul Homo Economicus, Double Consciousness, and Jordan Peele?s Us.- Conclusion.