The California Gothic in Fiction and Film - Paperbackby Bernice M. Murphy (Author) This book positions the 'California Gothic' as a highly significant regional subgenre which articulates anxieties specific to the historical, cultural and geographical characteristics of the 'Golden State'. California has long been perceived as a utopian space, but it is also haunted by the spectres of European and Anglo American imperialism, genocide, racial and economic discrimination, natural disaster and aggressive