»Anna Berger’s »Spectres of Masculinity« is a meticulous piece of Gothic literary criticism and an extremely insightful deep dive into the ways in which popular ghost stories challenge Victorian gender roles. By drawing on a wide range of theoretical positions from Gender Studies and Queer Theory via Psychoanalysis to Postcolonial Theory and Historical Materialism, this study highlights the ways in which Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories contest the idea of a universal masculinity, and explore the intersections of hauntology, gender, and colonialism. The book delves into the ways in which haunted domesticity, the spectralization of male sexual desire, and the undermining of imperial masculinity are key themes in the ghost stories of this period. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the Gothic and its ghostly entanglements with Gender Studies.«

Anna S. Berger is a literary scholar and journalist. She works as a postdoctoral researcher in English didactics at Universität Augsburg and as a journalist for the Schwäbische Zeitung. Previously, she was involved in journalism education at Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal. Her research focuses on Victorian literature – particularly Gothic literature –, comics and graphic novels, as well as critical media education.