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The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture argues that complex and often negative initial responses of early European settlers continue to influence American horror and gothic narratives to this day. The book undertakes a detailed analysis of key literary and filmic texts situated within consideration of specific contexts.

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Acknowledgements Introduction: We´re Not Out of the Woods Yet 1. The Cabin in the Woods: Order versus Chaos in the ´New World´ 2. ´We are But a Little Way in the Forest Yet´: The Community in the Wilderness 3. ´Going Windigo´: ´Civilisation´ and ´Savagery´ on the New Frontier 4. Backwoods Nightmares: The Rural Poor as Monstrous Other 5. ´Why Wouldn´t the Wilderness Fight Us?´ Eco-horror and the Apocalypse Notes Bibliography Filmography Index

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´This is a highly engaging read, full of great ideas and interesting connections. Each chapter has a well-chosen focus, and together they amount to the definitive scholarly commentary on the genre and its cultural significance. The book´s readability and its breadth even within its tight focus in terms of genre means it will be widely used in film studies, cultural studies, literature, American studies, cultural geography, and beyond.´ - David Bell, University of Leeds, UK

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Bernice M. Murphy is Lecturer in Popular Literature at the School of English, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Publications include The Suburban Gothic in American Popular Culture (2009), The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture (2013) and the collections Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy (2005) and (with Darryl Jones and Elizabeth McCarthy) It Came From the 1950s: Popular Culture, Popular Anxieties (2011).

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