ABSTRACT
My interest here is in the Gothic as a form that pervades youth culture. But rather than list the many instances of the Gothic in works for the young—from picture books dealing with the Golem or with gargoyles or ghosts to YA books that mine the horror genre to films and video games that turn on our fears of things lurking in the dark—I am more interested in asking why a form that we might think inappropriate for young readers is so pervasive in the various forms of textuality produced for them. When I say “we might think,” I must quickly add that I do not think the Gothic is inappropriate. However, it does deal with the lurid and the taboo. It unearths skeletons from the past and it raises fears for the future. It presents its reader with images and characters and themes we might think are too raw, too disturbing for young readers. Its themes include algolagnia, incest, desecration, blasphemy, and sado-masochism. Its two great themes, according to Patrick McGrath, are transgression and decay (1997: 154), and we might think of children’s literature as a literature that promotes positive social behaviour and growth, rather than describing transgression and decay. Fragmentation and dissolution characterize the Gothic. This is a genre that seeks to disorient us.
