Jochen Ecke
Search for other papers by Jochen Ecke in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
‘Is that you, our Jack?’
An anatomy of Alan Moore’s doubling strategies
in Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition
Abstract only
Log-in for full text

Alan Moore's doppelgangers largely appear in uncanny scenarios that borrow heavily from the Gothic tradition, and are themselves unsettling figures, both for the diegetic characters and for the reader. This chapter suggests that the double in the Gothic is often bound up in a tradition of double address to the audience, a tendency which, Ben Little has argued, is also central to Moore's work. While in the case of Swamp Thing the character's indeterminacy is eventually celebrated, Moore's thinly veiled Bildungsromane also have a dystopian potential. When Moore took up the reins of DC Comics' Saga of the Swamp Thing from Martin Pasko in 1982, he was faced with the task of revising a character that had gone through horror scenarios ad nauseam. There remains one final doubling strategy at work in From Hell, which further complicates Moore's negotiations with the Gothic doppelganger.

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 259 31 2
Full Text Views 110 4 0
PDF Downloads 38 4 1