Some historians believe that the modern world would not be the same without them. EditorĪlthough the history of the ancient Germanic tribes called the Goths, Visigoths and Ostrogoths occupied a very small portion of world history texts, their culture has influenced Western civilization more than people may understand. Rachel Fischer has ably put together an excellent resource for anyone wanting to build a collection from the ground-up, or add some new and interesting resources. She can be reached at concerning this column should be addressed to Mark Shores e-mail: How did we get from warlike Germanic tribes sacking Rome, to an aesthetic or subculture imbued with “the dark and melancholy, a hint of horror tinged with romance.” 1 This column will show you how widely this aesthetic is represented in art, architecture, film, literature and more, and along the way you will undoubtedly find some great resources to add to your collections, from music CD, to academic journals, reference works and the usual popular and academic books. She has a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Dominican University, a Master of Science in Management degree from Minot State University, and a BFA in Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago. Fischer is a Metadata Librarian at the University of Alabama. The author argues that the goth scene is not based upon the 'mutual gravitation' of people who share the same structural location in a capitalist social system, and who 'spontaneously react' to it in similar ways to form a.The Gothic Aesthetic: From the Ancient Germanic Tribes to the Contemporary Goth Subculture Rather, it emphasizes the importance of individual agency and shared patterns of consumption, especially those related to music and clothing, as the defining characteristics of the goth subculture. In contrast, 'this book's conception of subculture does not rest upon spontaneous expression of shared structural contradictions and need not involve any other form of symbolic or direct "resistance"' p. The author, who is a long-term member of the goth scene, positions himself against previously dominant theories of subcultures, including those associated with the Chicago School, and particularly the Birmingham School, with its tendency to overstate the role of social class in subcultural formation. It also signals what may turn out to be a generational change in subcultural studies, utilizing goths as a case study. This is a valuable book that offers important insights into an interesting subculture.
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