Goth's Dark Empire

Cover

CAROL SIEGEL GOTH’S DARK EMPIRE provides a fascinating look at Goth, a subculture among Western youth. It came to prominence with punk bands such as Marilyn Manson and was made infamous when it was linked erroneously to the Columbine High School murders.While the fortunes of Goth culture form a portion of this book’s story, Carol Siegel is more interested in pursuing Goth—especially Goth’s celebration of consensual sadomasochism (S/M)—as a means of resisting regimes of sexual normalcy upon which the maintenance of consumer capitalism depends. In the array of styles, practices, and aesthetics known as Goth, Siegel discovers avenues of escape from mainstream American values and ways of thinking as constructed by corporate advertising and the rhetoric of political conservatism. The world of Goth can appear wide-ranging: in films such as Edward Scissorhands and The Crow, popular fiction such as Anne Rice’s The Crow, popular fiction such as Anne Rice’s The Crow “vampire” novels, and rock bands such as Nine Inch Nails.And Goth was appealing as a mode of being sexually “undead”—and loving it. Goth culture accepted that people are imperfect and the world is dangerous; that sex involves desires the satisfaction of which can cause physical or emotional harm. First in an era of gender suspicion and then in the era of AIDS, such a notion could be very appealing. But in the early years of the twenty-first century, perhaps as part of the Columbine backlash, Goth virtually disappeared. What was Goth and what happened to it? In this book, Siegel tracks Goth down, reveals the sources of its darkness, and shows that Goth as a defiant response to the modern world has not disappeared but only escaped underground. Carol Siegel, Professor of English and American Studies at Washington State University,Vancouver, is author of Male Masochism: Modern Revisions of the Story of Love and New Millennial Sexstyles (both from Indiana University Press) and Lawrence among the Women: Wavering Boundaries in Women’s Literary Traditions, as well as articles on Modernist and Victorian literature, gender theory, film, and rock music. She also coedits the journals Genders and Rhizomes. INDIANA University Press http://iupress.indiana.edu 1-800-842-6796 INDIANA SIEGEL GOTH’S DARK EMPIRE CULTURAL STUDIES $19.95 Cover illustration by Sarah Atlee In Goth’s Dark Empire cultural historian Carol Siegel G G G G Go o o o ot t t t th’ h’ h’ h’ h’s s s s s D D D D Dark ark ark ark ark Em Em Em Em Emp p p p piiiiire re re re re G G G G Go o o o ot t t t th’s h’s h’s h’s h’s D D D D Da a a a ark rk rk rk rkk k k k k Em Em Em Em Emp p p p piiiiire re re re re Carol Siegel Indiana University Press N Bloomington and Indianapolis This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail iuporder@indiana.edu© 2005 by Carol Siegel All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Siegel, Carol, dateGoth ’s dark empire / Carol Siegel. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-253-34593-6 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-253-21776-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Goth culture (Subculture) I. Title. HQ796.S457 2005 306'.1—dc22 2004029641 1 2 3 4 5 10 09 08 07 06 05 To To To To To Ger Ger Ger Ger Gerh h h h hard ard ard ard ard [3.144.189.177] Project MUSE (2024-04-23...