Suburban Gothic: Difference between revisions

Suburban Gothic is defined by Bernice M. Murphy as "a subgenre of the wider [[American Gothic Fiction|American Gothic]] tradition which dramatises anxieties arising from the mass urbanisation of the United States and usually features suburban settings, preoccupations and protagonists".<ref name="Murphyp2">B. M. Murphy, ''The Suburban Gothic in American Popular Culture'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), {{ISBN|0-230-21810-5}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WbQnAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=sub-genre p. 2].</ref> She argues that a common trope of the suburban Gothic is the danger within a family or neighbourhood, rather than an external threat.<ref name="Murphyp3">B. M. Murphy, ''The Suburban Gothic in American Popular Culture'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), {{ISBN|0-230-21810-5}}, p. 3.</ref> Teenagers and children are often major protagonists or sources of threat and characteristic conflicts often focus on issues of individuality and conformity.<ref name="Murphyp2-3">B. M. Murphy, ''The Suburban Gothic in American Popular Culture'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), {{ISBN|0-230-21810-5}}, pp. 2–3.</ref> Tanja Stark approaches the genre through a symbolic lens, seeing the genre of suburban gothic as influenced by [[Psychoanalysis|psycholanalytical]] ideas of the [[Analytical psychology|Jungian]] [[Shadow (psychology)|shadow]], and the parts of domestic life that lie beneath conscious awareness. These [[Unconscious mind|unconscious]] desires and feelings can have a powerful influence on waking life, particularly when they are associated with serious trauma. Where the 'shadow' is not acknowledged or integrated, but is repressed, projected or inflated, the darker aspects of the psyche may emerge in ways that can be dangerous or destructive to mental or physical well-being of the individual and those around them. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Lecture: Suburban Gothic and the Sublime Divine, Tanja Stark for C.G.Jung Society of Queensland |url=https://jungqld.com/events/dec-2021/tanja-stark/suburban-gothic-and-the-sublime-divine/ |archive-date=12 December 2021 |access-date=13 March 2022 |website=C.G. Jung Society of Queensland}}</ref>