Review: Contemporary Gothic by Catherine Spooner
Andrea Walker reviewed Catherine Spooner's Contemporary Gothic in the April/May issue of Bookforum. She credits Spooner for her "attempts . . . to examine the subculture in all its multiplicity." Walker goes on to note, ". . . [I]t is somehow affirming to know that someone is keeping tabs on the goth population in places like Australia, where parasols are reportedly employed to keep complexions pale."
Walker does criticize Spooner's reliance on critical theory, suggesting that her study reflects ". . . the ideas she brings to the discussion rather than allow[ing] new insights to emerge." However, we wonder whether it is possible to properly assess the disparate themes and tendencies of a multifarious subculture without the aid of some theory. How exactly did a band of "working class stiffs" who disliked the "gothic" label end up inspiring later generations of "neo-romantic wraiths"? What holds them together, and why?