“Four Women Crying” (c.1878). Tintype photograph
“ ‘Gothic’ is an epithet with a strange history, evoking images of death, destruction, and decay,” the fashion historian Valerie Steele writes in “Gothic: Dark Glamour” (Yale University Press), a new coffee-table book, written with Jennifer Park.
“It is not just a term that describes something (such as a Gothic cathedral), it is also almost inevitably a term of abuse, implying that something is dark, barbarous, gloomy and macabre,” she wrote. “Ironically, its negative connotations have made it, in some respects, ideal as a symbol of rebellion. Hence its significance for youth subcultures.”
You Just Can’t Kill It Cintra Wilson NYT 9/17/08
Call Number: ML3918.G68 S74X 2008 (LC)
~Yale Arts Library Blog~ 