Literature Network » Louisa May Alcott

Race and the Gothic Monster: The Xenophobic Impulse of Louisa May Alcott's "Taming a Tartar".(Critical Essay)

Content courtesy of

From: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly)
Date: 20010301
Author:Derrickson, Teresa

In her study entitled Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters, Judith Halberstam concludes her rereading of the Gothic monster by implicating more than just the horror genre in the veiled construction of social prejudice. Warning against the hegemonic impulse that runs deep in areas we fail to consider, she writes, "the violence of representation does not always lie in bloody scenes of carnage or in images of monstrosity. [It] more often works through well-meaning and sincere humanist texts that feel compelled to make the human into some earnest composite of ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Louisa May Alcott

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.