The fascination with dark and deathly threatening spaces, with looming towers and bloody deeds, is now accepted as characteristic of contemporary fantasy and fantastic fictions for children and adolescents. Although this fascination dates back to the gothic genre of the mid-18th century, at that time, the gothic genre was not regarded as suitable for children or young persons in general. However, many young authors' first literary attempts were linked to the gothic genre, and child characters were employed in many of their novels, thereby transforming the gothic into a domain with a predilection for youth.
The aim of this book is to rediscover, present and analyze the usage of children in the gothic genre, spanning a period of 60 years from Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) to Charles Robert Maturin's Albigenses (1824). The Gothic Child is almost exclusively based on primary sources. It examines children and childhood in a new light and updates the current definition of the gothic genre by adding to it the archetype of the gothic child. The book also contains analyses of selected films from the 20th and 21st centuries and links the major child-related themes and motifs in them to the 18th and 19th-century representation of the child.

Monolingual, monolithic English is an issue of the past. In this collection, by using cinema, poetry, art, and novels we demonstrate that English has become the heteroglossic language of immigration - Englishes of exile. By appropriating its plural form we pay respect to all those who have been improving standard English, thus proving that one may be born in a language as well as give birth to a language or add to it one's own version. The story of the immigrant, refugee, exile, expatriate is everybody's story, and without migration, we could not evolve our human race.

Fascination with the dark and death threats are now accepted features of contemporary fantasy and fantastic fictions for young readers. These go back to the early gothic genre in which child characters were extensively used by authors. The aim of this book is to rediscover the children in their work.

Why do adults write about the child and why do they choose to depict children? This book looks at various examples from literature, art and film to analyze aspects of adults' outlook on the child, and what it tells us about the adult. It pays special attention to the eye motif, as well as looking, watching and representing children. It outlines what might become an interesting topic of analysis for other studies, namely, the idea that the adult's journey to self-actualization passes through writing for and about children.Rather than drawing major conclusions, the book opens venues for further thought on the topics treated. It also brings together works that might not have been compared or contrasted before, so that the reader can acquire a broader view of the threads that connect literature, art and film.