Ecogothic and Monster Science: Rethinking the Human–Nature Relationship in Nineteenth-Century Gothic Literature

Ecogothic and Monster Science: Rethinking the Human–Nature Relationship in Nineteenth-Century Gothic Literature

In this incisive monograph, Ecogothic and Monster Science: Rethinking the Human–Nature Relationship in Nineteenth-Century Gothic Literature , readers are invited to reconceptualize four canonical Gothic novels—Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , Bram Stoker’s Dracula , Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , and H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine —as ecological allegories forecasting today’s most urgent environmental quandaries. The author elucidates how each “monster,” from Frankenstein’s animate cadaver to Dracula’s invasive vampirism and from Hyde’s repressed bestiality to the Morlocks’ subterranean cannibalism, functions as an “eco-somatic marker”—a corporeal emblem of environmental disruption, moral deficiency, and hubristic scientific ambition. Blending sophisticated ecocriticism with a nuanced application of monster theory, the book contends that these nineteenth-century narratives presciently illuminate many of the Anthropocene’s exigent challenges: invasive species, deleterious pollutions, genetic manipulations, and the long-term ravages of industrial exploitation. By reinterpreting the Gothic’s foreboding castles, clandestine laboratories, and dystopian futures through an ecological lens, the author demonstrates that these sinister milieus are not mere backdrops for horror but veritable ecotones where nature and humanity converge—often with calamitous results. Ideal for scholars, students, and lay readers alike, Ecogothic and Monster Science also provides interdisciplinary pedagogical tools and explores contemporary ramifications of the Gothic ethos in modern media—from cinema and video games to augmented reality. Ultimately, this volume underscores the cautionary lessons encoded in literary horrors, challenging us to embrace ethical stewardship, renounce anthropocentric hubris, and confront the unremitting entanglement between humanity and the natural world.