…The peculiar aura of the Gothic is mainly the effect of the dissolution of all holistic theories about the world, theories ranging from philosophical movements such as positivistic scientism and Marxism to religious metaphysics. When facing the multifariousness of the postmodern condition, proponents of such theories soon discover that their previous ‘metaphysics of presence,’ which used to provide them with guidance, is actually far from being absolute. The end of the world that they often the...