Consorting with the Shadow: Phantasms and the Dark Side of Female Consciousness · Alison Armstrong

What do the women who haunt our stories reveal about ourselves?

Female vampires. Shapeshifters. Forbidden desires. Women who refuse to stay within the boundaries drawn for them.

In Consorting with the Shadow: Phantasms and the Dark Side of Female Consciousness, Alison Armstrong explores these unsettling figures through literary essays and short fiction. Moving between Gothic literature and the psychological shadow, she examines how stories give shape to fears, desires, and possibilities we might prefer to leave in the dark.

Featuring contributions and illustrations by Irena Barbara Nagler, this revised second edition invites readers to look beyond the monster and consider what waits beneath the surface.

For readers drawn to Gothic literature, feminist perspectives, dark archetypes, and fiction that leaves something lingering after the last page.

Step into the shadows. There is more to discover there than fear.