This exciting new study looks at degeneration and deviance in nineteenth-century science and late-Victorian Gothic fiction. The questions it raises are as relevant today as they were at the nineteenth century's fin de siecle: What constitutes the norm from which a deviation has occurred? What exactly does it mean to be 'normal' or 'abnormal'?
"Stephan Karschay examines the prominent questions posed by degeneration theory-what causes human deviance and how can it be detected-by tracing the complex development of degeneration theory ... . Degeneration, Normativity and the Gothic at the Fin de Siècle offers readers a productive place to begin interdisciplinary endeavors in Gothic literature, science, and the genealogy of degeneration theory." (Sharla Hutchison, English Literature in Transition, Vol. 59 (3), January, 2016)