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Gothic Fiction
Volume 4 Issues 1/2
2015
Studies in Gothic Fiction
Volume 4 1/2
2015
ISSN: 2156-2407
Editorial Board
Contents
Articles
Book Reviews
The Gothic Novel and the Stage:
Romantic Appropriations. Francesca
Saggini (2015)
Sarah A. Winter 87
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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Articles Volume 4 Issue 1/2. 2015 ©
All images in this essay are from Wikimedia Commons, and are therefore used under the public domain and also under the
1
wards realism was not simply a type of anti-realism ics possible for those who believe that beauty is the
or anti-empiricism. Wilde objected to any realism highest good” (26). So, according to Allen, “if we
that slavishly copied certain types of pre-ordained allow aesthetics to become the highest standard of
subject matter for reasons of mere verisimilitude” value in human life, we are submitting ourselves
(106). So, although Wilde might adhere to the doc- to aesthetics instead of making aesthetics serve us”
trine of l’art pour l’art, he was hesitant to use the (26). Dorian has sold his soul to aesthetics, but his
crutch of le réalisme pour le réalisme. Perhaps, then, ethical judgment is actually independent from his
The Picture of Dorian Gray is not only a reaction aesthetical existence, according to the world of Wil-
against the crude brutality of plain realism, but it is de’s Aesthetics. Wilde writes in “The Critic as Artist”
also a deviation from the crude brutality and plain- that “the sphere of Art and the sphere of Ethics are
ness of Realism for Realism’s sake. There is a specif- absolutely distinct and separate” (1145). This is due
ic aesthetic method to Wilde’s Realism in the novel to the fact that “Aesthetics are higher than ethics”
which is constructed in a way as to not be doomed (Wilde, “The Critic as Artist,” 1154).
to failure. Aesthetics, in fact are to Ethics in the sphere of
For Wilde, realism embodied an absolute value conscious civilisation, what, in the sphere of the
for aesthetics, given that only by seeing the world external world, sexual is to natural selection.
as it really is and appreciating what is beauti- Ethics, like natural selection, make existence pos-
ful—through the power of one’s ability to make sible. Aesthetics, like sexual selection, make life
choices—can one ever hope to begin the task of lovely and wonderful, fill it with new forms, and
making the world thoroughly aesthetic. One’s give it progress, and variety and change. (Wilde,
life—life itself—is what must be rendered beau- “The Critic as Artist,” 1154)
tiful. Realism—with its attendant focus on the Even though Dorian manages to transcend Eth-
world as it is in all of its detail—is just another ics in his Aesthetic existence, Ethics, like natural se-
name for the total aestheticization of everything. lection, not only make existence possible, but also
(Waldrep 104) determine survival. Like a species of beast that is
In the above passage, Waldrep argues for a link not equipped to fully adapt to its new environment,
between Realism and aesthetics, despite Wilde’s Dorian’s retention of Ethics in the world of Aesthet-
apparent derision of Realism in favor of aesthetics. ics spells his ultimate doom.
Dorian lives the life of a work of art, as his body main- The ethical morality of The Picture of Dorian
tains the beauty of youth, while it is the painting that Gray has been questioned since the novel first ap-
suffers from age and moral degradation. Therefore, peared. In a series of letters to the editor of the St.
like the perceived physical beauty of Dorian with his James’s Gazette, the Daily Chronicle, and the Scots
more realistic and problematic nature lurking be- Observer, written from late June until mid-August,
neath the surface, The Picture of Dorian Gray itself is 1890, Wilde actually sought to defend such criticism.
a novel that simultaneously expresses Aestheticism Returning to his 2 July, 1890 letter to the editor of the
and Realism in relation to its surface and subsurface, Daily Chronicle, Wilde answers the critique that the
or superstratum and substratum. Dorian is living an moral of Dorian Gray is simply “that when a man
aesthetic existence. But such an existence has its im- feels himself becoming ‘too angelic’ he should rush
plied ramifications. out and make a ‘beast of himself’” (par. 5). Wilde
James Sloan Allen claims that “The Picture of responds in admitting that, “I cannot say that I con-
Dorian Gray is not about the love of beauty and art sider that a moral. The real moral of the story is that
for its sake wholly divorced from the moral life. It all excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own
is about the love of beauty and art as the moral life punishment” (par. 5). Wilde also admits earlier in
itself. This means it is about how aesthetics can be- the same letter, “so far from wishing to emphasise
come ethics…It makes aesthetics the highest eth- any moral in my story, the real trouble I experienced
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in writing the story was that of keeping the extreme- to read the book to get the full effect and full com-
ly obvious moral subordinate to the artistic and prehension of what it is trying to accomplish, but
dramatic effect” (par. 3). Wilde, it seems, attempt- no one reads the book anyway, so doing so might
ed to subvert this rather obvious moral and render not even be worth it. Yet, Allen’s paradoxical read-
it part of the substratum of the novel, but instead, ing can again be interpreted as symbolic of Wilde’s
it remains part of the superstratum. It is a wonder artful intertwining of surface simplicity with subsur-
that the critics to which Wilde had to answer did not face complexity, as the novel’s simple moral message
read the novel in the manner of a moral fable, where is caught up in Wilde’s expression of Realism, in its
Dorian “sells” his soul for eternal youth, but in the literary and artistic sense. Also, as a Gothic novel,
end is punished for his transgressions. Wilde writes the mystical elements related to Dorian’s seeming-
that, “from an aesthetic point of view, it would be ly eternal youth and the projection of his aging and
difficult to keep the moral in its proper secondary moral depravity onto an inanimate painting seem so
place; and even now I do not feel quite sure that I simple as Gothic thrills, but those mystical elements
have been able to do so. I think the moral too appar- only serve to further complicate the elements of Re-
ent” (par. 4). Perhaps Wilde is selling himself short. alism in the novel. Like Dorian’s fictional life, The
In his attempts to subvert this rather obvious moral Picture of Dorian Gray can never be purely Realism
to the substratum of the novel, he has created com- nor Gothic escapism.
plications concerning the ethics of the novel. In order to test the validity of Hattingh’s
J.P. Hattingh poses the following questions in questions and Allen’s critique of The Picture of
relation to Wilde’s ethics: “can art really function as Dorian Gray in relation to the superstratum as well
a model for dealing with the antagonisms and con- as the substratum of the text, one must sort out Wil-
flicts, the ironies and the paradoxes of living a life in de’s conception of the functionality of art in relation
flux, of living a ‘meaningful’ life in a world that has to the real.
no metaphysical basis? Is living one’s life as a work I said in Dorian Gray that the great sins of the
of art not another form of metaphysical escapism, of world take place in the brain, but it is in the brain
mystifying life beyond recognition in the name of that everything takes place. We know now that
yet another ultimacy?” (60). These questions that we do not see with the eye or hear with the ear.
Hattingh asks of the text are valid as surface ques- They are merely channels for the transmission,
tions—as questions concerning the superstratum of adequate or inadequate, of sense-impressions. It
the novel. They are also valid in their application to is in the brain that the poppy is red, that the ap-
real life, as living one’s life as a work of art would not ple is odorous, that the skylark sings. (Wilde, De
only be interpreted as a form of metaphysical escap- Profundis, 1033)
ism if one were to actually live by such principles, but Wilde’s reality is determined by perception and
diagnoses along the lines of ‘sociopath’ would likely the subsequent cranial analysis of that perception.
be bandied about. However, such a reading of the The world, as a reality, only really exists as a result
novel, as a work of fiction, can be interpreted as per- of our perception, and it is the mind that makes that
haps being unfair to its overall intent. Allen likewise perception a reality. Art is greater than Nature, be-
seems to have the superstratum of the novel in mind cause Art is not limited by our perception. Art exists
when he writes that “The Picture of Dorian Gray is in our minds, and it is in our minds from which it
one of those books that almost everybody knows springs. Wilde writes in “The Decay of Lying” that
and that almost nobody reads. That is because it “no great artist ever sees things as they really are. If
tells such a unique, vivid, and readily graspable sto- he did he would cease to be an artist” (1088). Grant-
ry that we hardly need to read the book to get the ed, there might be aspects of a perceived Nature in
point” (25). In this passage, Allen not only praises Art which might create limitations in Art, but it is
the novel as “unique” and “vivid,” but also manages what the artist does within these limitations that de-
to imply that it is a simple read and is easily under- termines the true worth of the artist. When an artist
standable. Evidently, not only does one not need deals with Nature in the Aestheticism of Wilde, it is
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like he writes in “The Decay of Lying”: “Everything the world. It is finally to get rid of the conscience
is subordinated to us, fashioned for our use and our that had dogged his steps from year to year that he
pleasure” (1071). destroys the picture; and thus in his attempt to kill
In light of all of this, Hattingh’s first question conscience Dorian Gray kills himself” (par. 6). In
is challenged. Antagonisms, conflicts, ironies, and light of this statement made by Wilde, it is evident
paradoxes fundamentally involve perception. In or- that the only instance of escapism or even attempted
der for an antagonist to exist, the protagonist must escapism in the book is when Dorian tries to escape
perceive it and then mentally decide that it is an an- from his own conscience by destroying the portrait.
tagonism. In order for a conflict to exist, one must Dorian—when he is not caught up in his life of dec-
perceive a situation and then mentally decide that it adence—indeed suffers from guilt and remorse. He
is a conflict. In order for ironies and paradoxes to always has the painting as a reminder, and when he
exist, one must perceive a situation and then men- looks at it, he is provided with a visual representation
tally decide that it is either an irony or a paradox. of the whole body of work of his life’s transgressions.
Granted, one might argue that, in order for art to It sickens him and it haunts him, and it drives him
exist, one must perceive it and mentally decide that to the murder of his own persona. Even if Wilde
it is art, but then that is not the act of an artist, but meant for Dorian to enjoy the option of immortality
rather of a critic. Dorian is not a critic. Dorian is art. in such an existence, the disfigurement and destruc-
Even Basil is not a critic, at least not in terms of his tion of his aesthetic persona would ultimately drive
relationship with Dorian. Basil is the artist, and his him to the point of his own destruction.
creation sprang from his own mind, and if it mirrors Waldrep observes that “the contradictions con-
Dorian, then that is a result of the limitations of re- tained in Wilde’s novel between realism (or Natu-
ality, and it is the aspects of the portrait that sprang ralism) and decadence—the finely etched and the
solely from the mind of the artist that determine the broadly stroked, the detailed underside of life and
true worth of Basil and of the portrait. the frivolous surface of the aristocracy—express the
Art indeed cannot function, according to paradoxes of his aesthetic doctrine” (105). But are
Wilde, in the manner that is implied by Hattingh’s Naturalism and Decadence really that contradicto-
first question, and it is not meant to function in that ry? Waldrep later writes that “it is possible to argue
manner, regardless. This brings us to Hattingh’s sec- that Naturalism and Aestheticism, though seeming-
ond question, which is likewise challenged. Art is ly antagonistic” are indeed bound together in Wilde’s
a form of metaphysics, as it exists in the mind and novel (105). It is the element of Aestheticism that
transcends physicality, but it is not necessarily a exists in Naturalism and Decadence that somewhat
form of escapism. Concerning the superstratum of reconciles the two movements. Naturalism in visual
the novel, art might appear to be “mystifying life be- art is a quest to represent Nature, or human nature,
yond recognition,” as this is in accordance with the as it is perceived and then subsequently portrayed
obvious moral of the story: in an act of mystification, by the artist. The artist’s perception is limited by
Dorian “sells” his soul to art in exchange for eternal preconceptions based on Nature or human nature.
youth, and consequently his life and his portrait are Expanding on the earlier passage from “The Decay
corrupted beyond recognition. On the surface, this of Lying,” Wilde writes that the “object of Art is not
might seem like an act of escapism, but embedded in simple truth but complex beauty…It is in working
the substratum of the book is the fact that the only within limits that the master reveals himself, and
thing that Dorian ever really escapes from is phys- the limitation, the very condition of any art is style”
ical aging, and even that is only temporary. Wilde (1079). Sometimes complex ugliness is more the
himself writes in that 2 July, 1890 letter to the edi- end result of Naturalism than complex beauty, but
tor of the Daily Chronicle that Dorian “is haunted Naturalism in visual art can be viewed as an aestheti-
all through his life by an exaggerated sense of con- cization of ugliness. It is ugliness towards a purpose,
science which mars his pleasures for him and warns representative of the beauty of Nature. This reconcil-
him that youth and enjoyment are not everything in iation between Decadence and Naturalism can also
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be seen in Dorian Gray, and it does not necessarily ing as Dorian falls into moral degradation. Even be-
rely on Aestheticism as the vehicle. fore those particular changes take place, the original
In the realm of visual art, Naturalism exists as a form of the painting also reflects something of the
subgenre of Realism, as Rosenblum points out that man invisible, as Basil admits of the painting to Lord
the “category of Naturalism, although generally im- Henry that, “‘without intending it, I have put into it
plying a record, even an exposé, of the darker facts of some expression of all this curious artistic idolatry,
the human condition in the later nineteenth century, of which, of course, I have never cared to speak to
is often used interchangeably with the category of him’” (Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray [1891],
Realism, not only by the painters, writers, and critics 15). This same passage in the 1890 version of the
of the 1870s and 1880s, but by later historians” (369). novel reads, “‘I have put into it all the extraordinary
According to Rosenblum, Naturalism is a “branch of romance of which, of course, I have never dared to
Realism that concentrates on the reportorial account speak to him’” (194). The earlier, more homosexu-
of lower-class life in a more literal style” (369). Rosen- ally-charged version of Basil’s admission reveals that
blum uses the terms “exposé” and “reportorial” in Wilde struggled with a yearning to discuss the paint-
the above passages, which is consistent with the Nat- ing as a symbol of homosexual romance and erot-
uralist tendency to explore life with a sense of docu- icism, but also as a mirror of the intimate aesthetic
mentary objectivity. However, it is the “darker” and judgment of the artist. In the final form of the novel,
“lower-class” subject matter that not only facilitates the latter overshadows the intent of the former, but
an exploration of the aestheticization of ugliness, but echoes of the former can still be heard in the latter.
also very likely rescues Realism from its brutality of Wilde writes, in “The Decay of Lying,” that “‘Art finds
plainness for Wilde. Therefore, it is conceivable that her own perfection within, and not outside of, her-
Wilde, in his effort to deviate from the crude brutali- self. She is not to be judged by any external standard
ty and plainness of Realism, was actually engaging in of resemblance. She is a veil rather than a mirror’”
Naturalism, though he refrains from using that exact (1082). The rather contradictory interplay between
term in his written commentary on the novel. The the mirror and the veil in art is a theme that is also
closest he comes to that term is a comment made by taken up in “The Critic as Artist,” as Wilde writes
Lord Henry in the novel: “‘being natural is simply a of the “silver mirror” and the “woven veil” (1125),
pose, and the most irritating pose I know’” (Wilde, and also that “the most perfect art is that which most
The Picture of Dorian Gray [1891], 9). Lord Henry, fully mirrors man in all his infinite variety” (1115).
however, is indeed a Naturalist, as “he had been al- Early in The Picture of Dorian Gray, however, Wil-
ways enthralled by the methods of natural science” de writes of Basil that “the painter looked at the gra-
(64). Consistent with that scientific fascination, Lord cious and comely form he had so skilfully mirrored
Henry conducts a scientific experiment on Dorian, in his art” (1891, 5-6). But Basil is just as much a
as “the experimental method was the only method part of the painting as Dorian, as Basil also admits
by which one could arrive at any scientific analysis of to Lord Henry, “‘I have put too much of myself into
the passions; and certainly Dorian Gray was a sub- it’” (6). Basil is, then, not an external standard of re-
ject made to his hand, and seemed to promise rich semblance, but rather is an internal and integral part
and fruitful results” (66). Lord Henry is a Naturalist of the painting. The gracious and comely form that
in the scientific sense, while Basil Hallward is a Nat- he mirrors is not just the physical beauty of Dorian,
uralist in the artistic sense. but it is also an unspoken, veiled homosexual desire
Hippolyte Taine writes, in his History of that the artist has projected onto the canvas and onto
English Literature “‘[w]hen you consider with your Dorian, himself. The painting reflects the “infinite
eyes the visible man, what do you look for? The man variety” of both sitter and artist. And evidently, these
invisible’” (4). The painting of Dorian that Basil ex- elements of the painting, though veiled, are indeed
ecuted might be described in such a way, for it is the readable, so much so that the artist initially refuses
man invisible that begins to take form in the paint- to display the painting in a gallery. It is the phys-
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iognomy of the form depicted in the painting that necessarily tell the reader much about the painting,
might reveal these veiled secrets. This idea of phys- itself. The only direct description of the painting in
iognomy is consistent with the Victorian propensity the novel occurs towards the end, when the portrait
for classification, as Kate Flint observes that, “almost had already disfigured almost beyond recognition,
inevitably, the determinants of classification were and the description is delivered by Dorian—the
dependent, to at least some extent, on the recogni- only living person in the novel to have viewed the
tion of something’s, or someone’s material existence painting after its disfigurement—in terms of a line
or properties, which were subsequently ordered ac- from Hamlet, “‘Like the painting of a sorrow / A face
cording to certain schemata” (13-14). This language without a heart’” (Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
is also reminiscent of the discussion of scientific Nat- [1891], 235). Even though the reader is never given
uralism concerning Lord Henry. a specific description of the painting, we know that
The physiognomy of the painting was so expres- it mutates and disfigures as a result of Dorian’s mor-
sive, at least in the eyes of Basil, that he remarks to al transgressions, and therefore reveals the psycho-
Lord Henry: “‘The reason I will not exhibit this pic- logical and moral substructure of the character of
ture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the se- Dorian Gray.
cret of my own soul’” (1891, 9). According to Rich- According to Brettell, during the nineteenth cen-
ard R. Brettell, portraits during this period “were tury, “portraits function to define collective class
very often exhibited in public settings like the Salon membership, as they also reveal the individual’s
or the various Secession exhibitions in Munich and unique traits of physiognomy, taste in dress, gesture,
Vienna2, but without identifying their sitters pre- and physical setting” (166). But in typical Naturalist
cisely” (166). But the identification of the sitter is fashion, the portrait of Dorian Gray goes well be-
not so much the issue as is the identification of the yond these parameters of portrayal. With this focus
artist. Basil is apprehensive at the prospect of hav- on physiognomy in mind, Kate Flint interestingly
ing his name on a placard next to this painting; the connects Charles Dickens’s essay, “The Demeanor of
painting of a sitter that expresses in his physiognomy Murderers,” to The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dickens,
the veiled secret of the soul of the artist. Sheldon W. who frequented many asylums and prisons for the
Liebman argues that, “[a]s an artist, Basil is an ide- purpose of study, writes of Palmer, the Rugely Poi-
alist, whose goal is not to provide pleasure—either soner, that “Nature never writes a bad hand. Her
to himself or to others—but to inspire people with writing, as it may be read in the human countenance,
an art that portrays the union of feeling and form” is invariably legible, if we come at all trained to the
(304). But Basil is more than just an Idealist; he is a reading of it … The physiognomy and conformation
Naturalist. His painting reveals, through its physi- of the Poisoner whose trial occasions these remarks
ognomy, the psychology of not only the sitter (espe- were exactly in accordance with his deeds; and every
cially when the painting begins to disfigure), but also guilty conscience he had gone on storing up in his
of the artist. According to Vivian, in “The Decay mind had its mark upon him” (“The Demeanor of
of Lying,” “‘art never expresses anything but itself’” Murderers” 269-270). Flint remarks on the connec-
(1087). But in the case of the picture of Dorian Gray, tion to The Picture of Dorian Gray: “Actions come
both the sitter and the artist are the art itself, and, in to show their traces on human faces, rather than that
the fashion of Naturalism, the subsurface psycholo- physiological characteristics are invariably indicative
gy of the sitter and artist, though veiled, is expressed of a predisposition to criminal activity. This is the
in the painting. developmental commonplace on which Oscar Wil-
Indeed, it is the painting that is the most bla- de builds … when dramatically displacing Dorian’s
tant example of Naturalism in the novel. The form transgressions onto the features of his portrait”
in the painting is described as gracious and comely (18). The picture of Dorian Gray truly reveals the
very early in the novel, but this description does not psychology and physiognomy of its sitter during its
2
Lord Henry hints that a more intimate and avant-garde gallery, such as the Grosvenor, would be the more appropriate place for
the exhibition of the painting
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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Volume 4 Issue 1/2. 2015 ©
mour, and as Adonis with huntsman’s cloak and pol- the personality of Dorian transformed into a phys-
ished boar-spear’” (1891, 126). These are only two of ical attraction, and this physical attraction became
the paintings that Basil specifically mentions, but he an observable quality in the painting; a painting that
also makes it clear that he had been painting Dorian becomes a visual symbol of idolatry. But dressing
over a significantly long period of time, as he also Dorian up and painting his likeness in the form of
admits that, “‘weeks and weeks went on, and I grew the playboys of antiquity—such as the likes of Paris
more and more absorbed in you’” (1891, 126). Ba- and Adonis—did not betray the true and real feel-
sil calls this series of paintings “‘unconscious, ideal, ings of the artist. Rather, it was only when Basil fi-
and remote’” (1891, 127). Perhaps the two paintings nally painted Dorian not as a symbol of idolatry, but
that Basil does specifically mention are unconscious, as a Realist representation of the sitter’s beauty and
ideal, and remote, because the signifiers of antiquity personality, that unveiled the artist’s idolization of
allowed him to distance himself from the painting. the sitter.
The Classicism in the paintings acted as a veil or In the last passage that is quoted above, Basil
persona which effectively covered up the intimacy speaks of the “influence” that Dorian had over him.
and desire that permeated from the idealized image The role of influence in the novel among the three
of Dorian that exists in Basil’s mind. Basil continues primary characters—Basil, Dorian, and Lord Hen-
in his recount: ry—is a very interesting one. At times, it is not quite
One Day, a fatal day I sometimes think, I deter- discernable as to which character is truly influencing
mined to paint a wonderful portrait of you as you the other. A superstratum reading of the novel re-
actually are, not in the costume of dead ages, but veals that the primary role of influence in the novel
in your own dress and in your own time. Wheth- is that of Lord Henry’s influence over Dorian. Lord
er it was the Realism of the method, or the mere Henry is the one that recommends the reading of
wonder of your own personality, thus directly the Yellow Book of Joris-Karl Huysmans to Dorian,
presented to me without mist or veil, I cannot tell. and as a result, Dorian resolves that he “would re-
But I know that as I worked at it, every flake and sist temptation. He would not see Lord Henry any
film of colour seemed to me to reveal my secret. more—would not, at any rate, listen to those subtle
I grew afraid that others would know of my idol- poisonous theories that in Basil Hallward’s garden
atry. I felt, Dorian, that I had told too much, that had first stirred with him the passion for impossible
I had put too much of myself into it. (1891, 127) things” (1891, 103). The Duchess of Harley scolds,
This final portrait, contemporary in style and “‘Lord Henry, you are quite delightful, and dreadful-
costume, is a true representation of Realism. It is ly demoralizing’” (1891, 49). And Lord Henry even
truly a record of the “here-and-now” in terms of the thinks in specific terms concerning his talent for
now-unveiled feelings of desire that the artist felt for influence, observing of Dorian that, “talking to him
the sitter. But the above passage also reveals some- was like playing upon an exquisite violin. He an-
thing of the true nature of the desire that Basil feels swered to every touch and thrill of the bow … There
for Dorian. Basil reveals that the mere wonder of was something terribly enthralling in the exercise of
Dorian’s personality, as it is unveiled in the painting, influence” (1891, 42). However, Lord Henry has al-
might be one of the factors contributing to the overall most no real influence over Dorian at all, and it only
feeling of overexposed desire that the artist experi- appears that he is influencing the young man with
enced while painting and viewing the painting. This his scandalous theories and pieces of literature. In
is consistent with Basil’s admission to Dorian that, reality, the influence—and perhaps even the corrup-
“‘from the moment I met you, your personality had tion concerning the character of Dorian Gray—had
the most extraordinary influence over me’” (1891, its effect on the young man before Lord Henry even
126). But somewhere along the line, this attraction had a chance to “influence” him. Dorian, as a violin,
that Basil felt towards Dorian’s personality actually might indeed be exquisitely responsive to Lord Hen-
turned into idolatry. The emotional, intellectual, or ry’s efforts, but it is apparent that this instrument
sentimental attachment that Basil felt concerning had been played before. The fact that he is indeed
Studies in Gothic Fiction
14
Volume 4 Issue 1/2. 2015 ©
so exquisitely responsive might key into the idea taught him to be vain. He reminds Dorian, “‘you
that the violin has been well-worked, far beyond the had leant over the still pool of some Greek wood-
stiff awkwardness of an instrument that had never land, and seen in the water’s silent silver the marvel
been played, or of a merely decorative instrument. of your own face’” (1891, 127). In an obvious ref-
It might be argued that Lord Henry merely serves erence to Narcissus, Basil lets Dorian know that he
as a catalyst in order to verbalize and materialize the is very much aware of Dorian’s self-image, and he is
abstract ideas that have already found their way into also aware of the fact that it was he, Basil, that pro-
Dorian’s head. In a 27 June, 1890 letter to the editor vided the Greek reflecting pool in his renditions of
of the St. James’s Gazette, Wilde describes the roles of Dorian as Paris and Adonis. Basil seems to be aware
his three main characters in the following manner: of the fact that he is the one who corrupted Dorian
The painter, Basil Hallward, worshipping physical and turned him into a Narcissist. He is the one who,
beauty far too much, as most painters do, dies by in his covetous desire for this young man, drenched
the hand of one in whose soul he has created a his canvases with the form of a man that emanated
monstrous and absurd vanity. Dorian Gray, hav- idealized beauty and deep-seated, passionate desire.
ing led a life of mere sensation and pleasure, tries And to make matters worse, Basil was not troubled
to kill conscience, and at that moment kills him- by the implications of doing so until it was much too
self. Lord Henry Wotton seeks to be merely the late in Dorian’s disfigurement to make a difference.
spectator of life. He finds that those who reject He knew full well that he was potentially making a
the battle are more deeply wounded than those hideously beautiful monster of this man, but that
who take part in it. (259) was the least of his concerns. Rather, Basil was con-
This passage depicts Lord Henry in a role that is cerned with himself. Basil was not worried by the
not very influential. This role is consistent with the ethical implications of what he was doing to Dorian.
idea of Lord Henry as scientist in the novel, observ- Instead, Basil was obsessed with the potential ex-
ing his experiments in the role of spectator; but even posure of his desire for Dorian. Dorian observes
this role is a bit problematic, because Wilde’s intent, confidentially to Basil, “‘we have each of us a secret’”
as revealed above, shows that Lord Henry might not (1891, 125), and when Basil changes his mind and
even be proactive enough of a character to be able to decides to exhibit the painting, Dorian asks a ques-
set up his own experiments. He is indeed far more tion of himself that Basil likely asked of himself
passive spectator than he is proactive scientist. during the opening scenes of the novel, when Lord
But the passage also reveals something of Henry debated with him as to whether he should ex-
the nature of the relationship between Dorian and hibit the painting: “Was the world going to be shown
Basil, specifically in terms of the role of influence in his secret?” (1891, 124-125). Basil harbored a secret
that relationship. If Lord Henry was indeed finger- desire for Dorian, while Dorian was tortured with
ing and running his bow across a previously-played the secret changes that became visible on his por-
violin, then it was most certainly Basil who opened trait after he committed acts of moral transgression,
the case and made music with the instrument for and neither of them wanted these secrets to go any
the first time. Dorian puts Basil in his place when further than the recesses of their own minds. But
he says to him, “‘I owe a great deal to Harry, Basil,’ again, Basil is so concerned with himself that it never
he said at last—‘more than I owe to you. You only really occurs to him that Dorian’s secret is drastical-
taught me to be vain’” (Wilde, The Picture of Dorian ly different from his own. The following exchange
Gray [1891], 120). Again, if Basil did indeed have illustrates this: “‘It is extraordinary to me, Dorian,’
first crack at Dorian, it is evident that things between said Hallward, ‘that you should have seen this in the
them, at least from Dorian’s point of view, were rath- portrait. Did you really see it?’ / ‘I saw something in
er awkward and underdeveloped, a far cry from the it,’ he answered, ‘something that seemed to me very
sweet dulcet tones that were produced when Dorian curious’” (1891, 128). Basil is so obsessed with his
and Lord Henry made music together. own confession that he never gives Dorian an op-
Basil, in his covetous desire for Dorian, portunity to deal with his own problems—and to do
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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so with the man who, arguably, created them in the Granted, these mutations and hideous transforma-
first place. Basil, without too much prodding from tions that the figure in the painting undergoes as a
Dorian, reveals the reasons why he was initially ap- result of the moral transgressions of Dorian are in-
prehensive at exhibiting the portrait, and after doing consistent with the “gracious and comely form” that
so, the following exchange takes place: Basil originally brushed onto the canvas, but if that
“My dear Basil,” said Dorian, “what have you told beautifully idealized image of the intimate desire
me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too that Basil felt for Dorian was so strikingly accurate
much. That is not even a compliment.” and mirror-like in its depiction, then might the same
“It was not intended as a compliment. It was a be said of the changes that took place? Perhaps the
confession. Now that I have made it, something changes that the figure in the painting undergoes are
seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should not necessarily a direct result of Dorian’s transgres-
never put one’s worship into words.” (1891, 128) sions, but rather are a record of the transgressions
But the interesting thing is, at the beginning of that Basil commits against Dorian. After all, it is
this scene in the novel, Basil is intent on exhibit- Basil’s idealized image of Dorian that appears in the
ing the painting, even before this confession takes portrait. Dorian was but a plain gray canvas before
place. So what happened between the scene where Basil taught him to be vain, and therefore primed the
he gives the painting to Dorian and the scene of his canvas for the consequent changes that took place. It
confession to Dorian that changes his feelings about was Dorian’s reputation that influenced the brush of
the exhibition of the painting? Is it just the sim- Basil as he painted his series of portraits of Dorian
ple fact that the painting was out of his sight for so Gray. This same reputation also caused the changes
long that perhaps the impact of his fear of exposure in image and persona that corrupted the canvas of
had lessened? If the painting was still in its original his final painting of Dorian. Most certainly it was
form and Dorian allowed him to view the painting, the painting that had a direct influence on Dorian,
would Basil have reconsidered his plans to exhibit as “[i]t held the secret of his life, and told his story.
the painting as a result of a visual reminder of the It had taught him to love his own beauty. Would it
intimate hidden desire that he betrayed in the paint- teach him to loathe his own soul?” (1891, 102). By
ing? All of this is unclear in the novel. However, it extension, this painting serves as concrete evidence
is evident that, at the end of this scene, after putting of Basil’s influence on Dorian Gray, as it was com-
his confession into words, Basil has managed to ex- posed by the hand of no other artist than he.
orcise his desire for Dorian, as it “seems to have gone In an act of mystification, the corrupted strokes
out of” him. But the fact remains that Dorian’s se- that appear on the picture of Dorian Gray were in-
cret has not been dealt with. Dorian appears stead- deed applied by the hand of Basil. Perhaps Basil al-
fast against the revelation of his secret to Basil, as it lowed his depiction of the sitter to be corrupted by
would be impossible for him to do so after hearing the history that they had with each other, reflecting
Basil’s own confession. Perhaps if Basil had not been not only his changing idealized image of desire for
so anxious to deal with his own issues, he might have Dorian, but also the transgressions that Dorian com-
prodded Dorian into a confession. The lack of do- mitted as a result of Basil’s corruption of the formerly
ing so spelled Basil’s doom. Dorian eventually re- artless and blank canvas of a young man that Dorian
veals his secret to Basil, but at that latent period in used to be. Returning again to the Naturalist por-
the novel, the portrait and soul of Dorian had been trait example of Romako’s Portrait of Isabella Reisser,
corrupted and corroded to such an extent that it was the image in that painting is certainly not as evil or
too late for Basil to rescue him. Instead, Basil was grotesque as the corrupted portrait of Dorian Gray
punished for his transgressions by the very man that would have been. However, the respective physi-
he had originally corrupted. ognomies of the images and personas of the sitters
Since it was Basil who painted the original in each of the paintings are indeed transformed as
form of the picture of Dorian Gray, are the changes a result of the changes of the idealized images and
that corrupt the canvas then done in Basil’s hand? personas of the sitters that existed in the minds of
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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Volume 4 Issue 1/2. 2015 ©
the artists. As Rosenblum argues of Romako, “his ed by not only occasional pangs of ethical remorse
eccentricity was, in fact, part of a general direction in his conscience, but also by a visual representation
in the 1880s to peer below the material surfaces and of a persona that is grotesquely mutated by his moral
restricting social conventions of nineteenth-century transgressions. The painting indeed had “been like
men and women and to find there a dark and dis- conscience to him” (1891, 245). In the true man-
turbing world” (Rosenblum 379). The same can cer- ner of Naturalism in visual art, the persona in the
tainly be said of Wilde’s character, Dorian Gray, as painting is so sickening that Dorian must destroy it
well as the novel as a whole. The effect of physiogno- and effectively clear his conscience, but he does not
my achieved in the painting of Dorian Gray, and also realize that the destruction of his ethical persona is
of Isabella Reisser, is very different from the real-life the consequent destruction of himself. Evidently,
physical characteristics of the sitters—as especial- we must all, as a society, inevitably bear the mark of
ly Dorian Gray, though limited in his existence by our transgressions; we cannot hide behind a persona
the pages of a novel, is clearly a character with very forever. As a result, as Waldrep observes, “by com-
pleasing physical characteristics, a far cry from the menting on the ways in which society functions,
horrific Naturalistic ugliness of the persona in his Wilde is actually achieving some of the same ends as
portrait. Heather Marcovitch observes that, “when the Naturalist writers” (109). The Picture of Dorian
control over persona is taken away from the individ- Gray is not only a Naturalist work in the sense of vi-
ual behind it, the individual’s desires and will threat- sual art, but it also possesses characteristics of Natu-
en to pervert his or her persona” (91). A persona “is ralism in the literary sense. After all, if we return to
neither static nor inanimate; it generates its own en- Ojala’s comments on the superstratum and substra-
ergies that, if not used to develop itself, may emerge tum of the novel, that superstratum might very well
in dangerous and destructive ways” (Marcovitch 93). act as a Naturalistic persona, masking the “psycho-
In each of the two paintings—of Dorian Gray and logical basis of life” with its “witty conversational ele-
of Isabella Reisser—the persona, beyond the con- ments.” Indeed, the very novel itself enacts the traits
trol of the sitter, and perhaps even of the artist, has of Naturalism.
emerged as a perverted force, if not also a destructive
one. The form of Isabella Reisser is perverted in Ro- References
mako’s painting, as her flattened, fang-filled face, and
her rather two-dimensional and silhouette-like body Allen, James Sloan. “The Use and Abuse of Aes-
with its proportionately impossible hourglass shape, theticism.” Arts Education Policy Review 104.5
is a perversion of the real-life form of the sitter. The (May/June 2003): 23-27. Print.
physical form of the sitter in Hallward’s painting is Brettell, Richard R. Oxford History of Art: Mod-
indeed destroyed, as uncontrolled havoc is wreaked ern Art 1851-1929: Capitalism and Representation.
upon the physiognomy of Dorian to an almost un- Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Print.
recognizable extent. If we rely on the assumption Dickens, Charles. “The Demeanor of Murder-
that the form of the painting is transferred to the liv- ers.” Old Lamps for New Ones, and other Sketch-
ing form of the sitter when Dorian dies, then the fact es and Essays. Ed. Frederick G. Kitton. New York:
that “it was not till they had examined the rings that New Amsterdam Book Company, 1897. 269-276.
they recognized who it was” (Wilde, The Picture of Print.
Dorian Gray [1891], 246), that was lying prone on Flint, Kate. The Victorians and the Visual Imag-
the floor, shows the extent of the dangerous destruc- ination. Cambridge: The Cambridge University
tion of Dorian’s persona. Regardless of Basil’s hand Press, 2000. Print.
at work in the novel, it is ultimately Dorian and the Hattingh, J.P. “Living One’s Life as a Work of
painting that end up dueling it out at the conclusion Art.” South African Journal of Philosophy 15.2
of the story. (May 1996): 60-72. Print.
Dorian Gray, though enjoying an Aesthetic exis- Liebman, Sheldon W. “Character Design in The
tence, cannot survive in this manner, as he is haunt- Picture of Dorian Gray.” Studies in the Novel 31.3
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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(Fall 1999): 296-316. Print. Hart-Davis. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World,
Marcovitch, Heather. “The Princess, Persona, 1962: 259. Print.
and Subjective Desire: A Reading of Oscar Wilde’s
Salomé.” Papers on Language and Literature 40.1
(Winter 2004): 88-101. Print.
Ojala, Aatos. Aestheticism and Oscar Wilde Part
I: “Life and Letters.” Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjalli-
suuden Seuran Kirjapainon Oy, 1954. Print.
Rosenblum, Robert. 19th-Century Art. New
York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1984. Print.
Taine, H. A. History of English Literature. Vol.
2. Trans. H. Van Laun. Edinburgh: Edmonston &
Douglas, 1871. Print.
Trotter, David. Cooking with Mud: The Idea of
Mess in Nineteenth-Century Art and Fiction. Ox-
ford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.
Waldrep, Shelton. “The Aesthetic Realism of
Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray.” Studies in the Literary
Imagination 29.1 (Spring 1996): 103-112. Print.
Wilde, Oscar. De Profundis. Collins Complete
Works of Oscar Wilde: The Centenary Edition.
Glasgow: Harper Collins, 1999. 980-1059. Print.
---. “Lecture to Art Students.” Delivered to the
Art students of the Royal Academy at their Club in
Golden Square, Westminster. 30 Jun. 1883. Miscel-
lanies. Project Gutenberg eBooks. Ed. Robert Ross,
16 Nov. 2004. Web. 22 Jan. 2015. <http://www.
gutenberg.org/dirs/1/ 4/0/6/14062/14062.txt>.
---. “The Critic as Artist.” Collins Complete
Works of Oscar Wilde: The Centenary Edition.
Glasgow: Harper Collins, 1999. 1108-1155. Print.
---. “The Decay of Lying.” Collins Complete
Works of Oscar Wilde: The Centenary Edition.
Glasgow: Harper Collins, 1999. 1071-1092. Print.
---. The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1890. New
York: Norton, 2007. Print.
---. The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1891. London:
Penguin Books Ltd., 1985. Print.
---. “To the Editor of the Daily Chronicle.” 2
Jul. 1890. “Letters on Dorian Gray.” V. “Dorian
Gray.” Daily Chronicle. Miscellanies. Project
Gutenberg eBooks. Ed. Robert Ross, 16 Nov. 2004.
Web. 22 Jan. 2015. <http://www.gutenberg.org/
dirs/1/4/0/6/14062/14062. txt>.
---. “To the Editor of the St. James’s Gazette.” 26
Jun. 1890. The Letters of Oscar Wilde. Ed. Rupert
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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In the spring of 1973, Stephen King had just One of these “interesting bounces” comes in
taught Bram Stoker’s Dracula to his high school how King’s novel of a small-town vampire infes-
English class. His first published novel, Carrie, had tation gauges both specific late twentieth-cen-
been released in hardback earlier that year, but the tury American economic concerns and broader
revenue from the work’s paperback printing, which anxieties over the long-term effects of American
would allow King to quit teaching and write full consumer culture. King updates not only the
time, was still several months away. As King relates setting of the vampire mythos, but also the vam-
it1, the inspiration for his second published novel, pire-as-capitalist metaphor.
1975’s ‘Salem’s Lot, came from a dinner conversation The relationship between vampire and capital-
with his friend Chris Chesley about Stoker’s novel, ist goes back, at least, to Karl Marx, who writes,
which King considered “a delightful and power- “[c]apital is dead labor, that, vampire-like, only
ful rediscovery” (King, “Brand” 29). The conver- lives by sucking living labor, and lives the more,
sation turned to the Count’s probable failure in the the more labor it sucks. The time during which the
face of twentieth-century technology, until Chesley laborer works, is the time during which the capi-
suggested the vampire might have more success in talist consumes the labor-power he has purchased
an isolated small town than in a large metropolis. of him” (362). In Signs Taken For Wonders, Fran-
King’s realization that “[t]here are so many towns in co Moretti expands upon Marx’s metaphor, writ-
Maine, towns which remain so isolated that almost ing that the vampire “is capital that is not ashamed
anything could happen there. People could drop out of itself, true to its own nature, an end of itself…”
of sight, disappear, perhaps even come back as the (94). Moretti justifies his claim with, among other
living dead” (King, “Brand” 29), combined with his things, the similarities between Quincy, the only
love of Stoker’s novel, resulted in ‘Salem’s Lot. American in Stoker’s band of vampire hunters, and
Though the setting is undoubtedly different, the monster himself. Both Quincy and the Count
King’s novel is a deliberate homage to Stoker’s novel must be destroyed because it is the dehumanizing
(it was originally titled Second Coming), but with a impulses of capitalism that are the true enemy in
distinctly twentieth-century twist. In Danse Maca- Stoker’s novel.
bre, King likens the challenge to a “game of literary Unlike in Stoker’s novel, however, where the
racquetball”: band of heroic vampire hunters emerge victori-
‘Salem’s Lot itself was the ball and Dracula was ous and (aside from Quincy) alive after having
the wall I kept hitting it defeated the symbolic monster, King’s American
against, watching to see where it would bounce, “Crew of Light” 2—writer Ben Mears; local artist
so I could hit it again. As a matter of fact, it took and recent college graduate Susan Norton; Mark
some pretty interesting bounces, and I ascribe Petrie, who recently moved to the Lot with his
this mostly to the fact that, while my ball existed family; teacher Matt Burke; Father Callahan, the
in the twentieth century, my wall was very much local priest; and town doctor Jimmy Cody—ut-
a product of the nineteenth. (38) terly fails to contain the vampire threat; each is ei-
1
Background information adapted from King’s essay, “On Becoming a Brand Name.”
2
Christopher Craft’s well-known term for the band of vampire hunters in Stoker’s novel, from Another Kind of Love: Male Homo-
sexual Desire in English Discourse, 1850-1920 (1994).
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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ther converted, killed, or spiritually defeated, and tion: Anne Rice and Vampire Literature,” Martin
the town of ‘Salem’s Lot becomes quite literally Wood is particularly harsh, writing that:
“a dead little place” on the highway (417)3. The ‘Salem’s Lot is finally not much more than Stok-
two survivors, Ben Mears and Mark Petrie, flee to er’s Dracula transported to Maine….The symbols
Mexico, returning months later in an attempt to are empty. In this barren fiction, monsters inhabit
purify the infested town with fire. the Gothic landscape without evoking the myth-
The failure of King’s vampire hunters is a di- ic terrain…instead of evoking the mythic land-
rect result of their own blindness to the source of scape, monsters merely inhabit scary places. (66)4
the evil: the capitalist environment that attracted Indeed, the Lot is a scary place, but it is also
King’s vampire Kurt Barlow to the Lot in the first a recognizable place, which makes its ultimate
place. King’s vampire does not so much seek out destruction a much more powerful metaphor for
new blood in Jerusalem’s Lot as emerge from the economic decline. The vampire does not “merely
town’s already existing vampiric appetite, engen- inhabit” ‘Salem’s Lot; he emerges from within it
dered by the capitalist imperative of continuous as a physical representation of its self-destructive
consumption. The economic decline of small tendencies, tendencies uncannily recognizable
American towns in the 1960’s and ‘70’s rendered to the reader. A closer look at small-town demo-
Jerusalem’s Lot economically vampiric long be- graphics in the 1960’s and 1970’s provides further
fore Barlow arrived; as the intimate, conspirato- economic explanation for King’s setting.
rial narrator tell us, “[i]t is almost as though the In Small Town America, Richard Lingeman
town [knew] the evil was coming and the shape it details a 14.5% decline in the rural population of
would take” (210). King’s novel thereby challeng- the United States between 1940 and 1970 (443).
es conventional views of the vampire as an exter- Poverty, loss of industry and agricultural im-
nal threat, and instead examines the internalized provements that decreased the number of small
capitalist impulses that destroyed the economic farms created a rural exodus as millions left the
life-blood of the small town and provided it the country in search of greater opportunities in cit-
tools to its own self-destruction. King’s vampire ies. This decline was short lived, however. The
does not convert Americans into vampires; in- population of small towns actually increased dra-
stead, he exploits their economic ignorance to matically during the 1970’s as “disillusionment
make a home among his own kind. with the city grew” and millions returned to the
In “Vampiric Appetite in I Am Legend, ‘Sa- country “searching for a simpler life close to the
lem’s Lot, and The Hunger,” Mary Pharr argues soil and the sense of community of a small-town
that the vampire is naturally attracted to “Ameri- environment” (Lingeman 441). Kenneth John-
ca’s massive appetite for self-destructive acquisi- son, in “Demographic Trends in Rural and Small
tion” (96). It is just this quality of capitalism that Town America,” notes that during the decade of
Pharr believes attracts Kurt Barlow to America. the 1970’s, “the rural population growth was so
Her analysis does not, however, examine why great that it actually exceeded growth in metro-
Barlow chooses the small town of Jerusalem’s politan areas—an occurrence virtually without
Lot, Maine, population 1,319, rather than the precedent in the nation’s history” (8). Urban ref-
city, which would seemingly be a more appropri- ugees fled back to the small town in search of a
ate symbol of American capitalistic excess; Pharr simpler, more innocent life.
even suggests that Barlow makes a mistake with Ben Mears, the protagonist of ‘Salem’s Lot,
his choice (96). A few critics have even argued follows this trend. He returns to the town where
that King erred in staging his vampire novel in he lived briefly as a child precisely “to recapture
a small town. In “New Life For an Old Tradi- something that was irrevocably lost” after his
4
Similarly, Robert Lidston, in “Dracula and Salem’s Lot: Why the Monster Won’t Die” bases what he thinks is the work’s failure on
its derivative nature and the sheer normalcy of its setting (76-77).
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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wife’s death in a traffic accident (4). Ben, who es increased by one-ninth in population” (18). In
left the Lot during the mass exodus decade of the short, these are towns full of people, but lacking
1950’s, is relieved to find that after twenty-five businesses, industry, entertainment, or jobs.
years away, “[i]t was just the same. There was no In ‘Salem’s Lot, King subtly illustrates this eco-
difference, not at all. He might have last seen it nomic trend. Besides the appropriation of labor
yesterday” (6). Upon passing a still-operating by larger companies exemplified by the Griffen
dairy farm that he remembers from his child- Dairy, the Lot has not had its own source of in-
hood, he smiles, wondering “if they still bottled come since the Jerusalem’s Lot Sawmill closed in
and sold their own milk” (5). Ben sees his return 1960 (43). Eva Miller, the widow of the man who
to small-town life as an opportunity to recover attempted to keep the Sawmill open, now runs
from the wounds of adulthood. Ben is wrong a boarding house for single men who are either
about the dairy farm, though. Although still in unemployed or work at factories in neighboring
operation, the Griffen Dairy is, by 1975, bottling cities (37). A large chunk of land in the poorer
milk for a larger company: “Charles Griffen’s fa- part of town is “owned by a paper company most
ther had marketed his own milk, but that was no renowned for asking patrons not to squeeze their
longer practical. The conglomerates had eaten up toilet paper,” but that company does not provide
the last of the independents” (35). Mears does any jobs for local residents (259). Following na-
not know this, however, and is strengthened in tional, historical trends, in the Lot “a good many
his belief that all is well in the small town of his houses had been bought by the white-collar work-
youth. ers who commuted to either Portland or Lewis-
The Griffen Dairy is emblematic of a larger ton,” and “[t]here was no Public Works Depart-
economic trend in small towns at this time: al- ment because there were no public water lines,
though their populations were growing, their gas mains, sewage, or light-and-power” (18;19).
economy continued to decline. Accustomed to The Lot lacks a hospital (it is in nearby Cumber-
the convenience of cities, many who returned to land) and a bank; even the schoolteachers are
small towns in the 1970’s continued commuting brought in from out of town (402). As the town
for work and entertainment. Lingeman sums this doctor Dr. Jimmy Cody notes, “[t]here’s no in-
tendency up nicely: “Americans were closer than town industry where a rise in absenteeism would
ever before to being able to achieve their wish to be noticed. The schools are three-town consoli-
escape the city while still having it. They could dated, and if the absence list starts getting a little
live in the country and commute to work….They longer, who notices?” (256). With no source of
could, in short, live on the land or in a small town, income, and no industry to speak of, ‘Salem’s Lot
while remaining attached by mass-communi- is truly a bedroom community, the perfect place
cation neurons to the city” (447). The results of for a night-stalking evil to appear.
this trend were small communities with little to As the businesses in ‘Salem’s Lot empty, evil
no industry of their own, and that served prin- moves in. Two of the most important symbols for
cipally as bedroom communities to the larger the Lot’s economic decline are the Village Wash-
cities nearby. Empty downtowns and closed fac- tub laundromat and the Nordica movie theatre,
tories came to symbolize the struggling economy both of which are defunct by 1975. The theatre
of the small town. Bert Swanson, Richard Cohen closed in 1968, and is now Larry Crockett’s real
and Edith Swanson write in 1979’s Small Towns estate office (14). Crockett is the wealthiest resi-
and Small Towners that: “[p]erhaps what is being dent of ‘Salem’s Lot; he made his fortune selling
noticed most is the loss in the number of con- trailers at 25% interest to the Lot’s growing pop-
sumer business establishments [in small towns], ulation of “lower-middle-class blue-or white-col-
which have declined one-third from 1950 to 1970 lar workers, people who could not raise a down
in non-metropolitan towns with less that 2,500 payment on a more conventional house, or older
people. This has occurred while these same plac- people looking for ways to stretch their social se-
Studies in Gothic Fiction
21
Volume 4 Issue 1/2. 2015 ©
curity,” and through a number of sublegal deals not arrived in the Lot by any usual means, and
involving commercial and residential land de- most certainly did not pass through customs or
velopments in other cities (80-81). One of these any foreign ports.
deals involves selling the abandoned laundromat As another condition of their deal with Crock-
to Barlow and his human familiar, Richard Strak- ett, Barlow and Straker take up residence in
er, in exchange for the deed to a multi-million the decayed, long-abandoned Marsten House.5
dollar commercial development in Portland (54- Along with the antique store and the town dump,
55). Barlow and Straker plan to reopen the de- two other of the novel’s cluttered, claustrophobic
funct Village Washtub as an antique store. set pieces, the Marsten House forms a trifecta of
This deal benefits Crockett, Straker, and Bar- non-productive consumption, a closed system in
low, but not the general population of the Lot. which consumption continues, but without rea-
Straker claims that the store will cater to “tour- son, without fresh resources, and finally without
ists and summer residents” traveling the highway distinguishing between consumed goods and
that cuts through town (54), and the antique busi- consumed lives. “Being in the town,” the narra-
ness requires only consumption, not production, tor confides, “is a daily act of utter intercourse, so
therefore reflecting the larger economic condi- complete that it makes what you and your wife do
tions of a town with no industry of its own. Two in the squeaky bed look like a handshake” (210).
businesses that symbolize a thriving community The house, however, acts as an almost overde-
and a healthy economy—a theatre and laundro- termined symbol—for the town, for the empty
mat—both closed due to a declining local econ- evils of consumption, for economic decline, for
omy, have been replaced with businesses that the effects of capitalism and its illusion of pros-
economically, and later literally, prey upon the perity—and as quite literally a magnet for evil, a
increasingly deprived residents of ‘Salem’s Lot. place that, as Ben figures, acts as “a supernatural
Crockett’s deal with the devil effectively amounts beacon” to call “evil” men (112-113): first, Hubie
to offering up “the Lot” (as locals call the town) as Marsten, and later, Barlow and Straker.
a “lot” at auction, sold out to the highest bidder. The once-beautiful mansion is marred by a vi-
Into this economic decay “enters” the vampire, olent history; its last owner, an ex-mobster ousted
Kurt Barlow, if he could be said to enter from for rumors of having performed human sacrifice
outside at all. Although King honors Stoker’s (and who seemingly continued his dark hobby in
model by having his vampire presumably arrive ‘Salem’s Lot, where several children disappeared
by boat, he hints that the crate containing Bar- during the years of his residence [111]), retired
low’s coffin may have simply materialized once to the Lot in the 1920’s and slowly went insane.
the ship reached port. When Crockett’s lackey During this time, he corresponded with Barlow.
Royal Snow arrives at the docks to retrieve the Although the nature of his correspondence is
belongings of the Lot’s newest residents, Barlow never known, King’s narrator associates this cor-
and Straker, he notices that although most of the respondence with Crockett’s dealings with Bar-
crates bear numerous stamps, the crate contain- low and Straker, noting that, “Hubie had burned
ing the “sideboard” bears no customs stamps, each and every letter before hanging himself,
“[n]ot on the box, not on the invoice envelope, feeding them to the fire one at a time….he was
not on the invoice. No stamp” (84). The coffin has smiling as he did it, the way Larry Crockett now
5
The house is perhaps the most critically discussed symbol in the novel. In King of Blood and Darkness Vincent Singleton con-
vincingly argues that the Marsten House, a shambling mansion overlooking the Lot, is the town itself. Alan Ryan’s “The Marsten
House in ‘Salem’s Lot” situates the house as the source of the evil in the novel. His argument is based on King’s epigraph, from
the opening passage of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (and Jackson’s Hill House is certainly a direct forbear of the
Marsten House), as well as on the violence that occurred in the house with the murder-suicide of Hubie Marsten and his wife.
Heidi Strengell, in Dissecting Stephen King, offers an extensive comparison between the house with Dracula’s castle in Stoker’s
novel (157-158). For his own part, King admits to no particular intended significance of the Marsten House, calling it “the gothic
equivalent of an appendix. It was there, but it wasn’t doing much except lending atmosphere” (Danse 254).
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smiles over the fabulous land-title papers that re- serve as the microcosm where the clash of uni-
side in the safe-deposit box of his Portland bank” versal forces occurs” (105). Although Singleton
(211). The suggestion is that Barlow and Marsten does not make an economic connection between
had made a similar deal; indeed, it seems like- the vampire Barlow and the residents of ‘Salem’s
ly that Marsten “invited” the vampire to ‘Salem’s Lot, he does recognize the significance of situat-
Lot in the first place, therefore empowering him ing the evil in the novel as an internal, rather than
to move at will throughout the town once condi- an external threat. “In ‘Salem’s Lot,” he writes,
tions were favorable for his appearance. “King transforms vampires from creatures of
When the bodies of Hubie Marsten and his purely external evil to creatures of largely inter-
wife were discovered after a gruesome mur- nal evil, by directly linking the vampires’ advent
der-suicide in 1939, the house was found to be to the sins of the townspeople” (116-117). Single-
“a piled, jumbled, bewildering rat’s nest of junk, ton blames the townspeople for bringing about
scavenged items, and narrow winding passage- their own demise, but rather than focusing on
ways which led through yellowing stacks of economic realities he condemns them for gaining
newspapers and magazines and piles of white-el- social nourishment through incessant gossiping.
ephant books,” all the while still externally a Gossip, however, is a symbolic iteration of com-
“fine-looking place” (25; 26). Like ‘Salem’s Lot it- pulsive consumption.
self, the house appears sound, but behind its false The shift from external to internal threat con-
front conceals a rotted infrastructure created tradicts the traditionally conceived perception of
by an unmitigated hoarding instinct, consump- the vampire as epitomizing external evil. In Fan-
tion as an end of itself. Upon closer inspection, tasy: The Literature of Subversion, for example,
the house is “dehydrated,” “gray and used up” Rosemary Jackson contends that the modern fan-
(330), an emblem of both the vampire and his tastic contains only two controlling archetypes,
victim. Inside, the house is filled with the detri- the “Frankenstein” myth, in which otherness
tus of consumption. It is nevertheless omnipres- emerges from within, and the “Dracula” myth, in
ent in the town; it looms over all, as both Ben which “otherness is established through a fusion
and the schoolteacher Matt Burke observe, “like of self with something outside, producing a new
some kind of dark idol” (119). It is a testament to form, an ‘other’ reality” (59). The vampires in ‘Sa-
wealth gained, hoarded, wasted, and festered at lem’s Lot are a reflection of internalized cultural
the cost of lives and souls; it is rotten to the core imperatives, and therefore are an internal, rather
but admired, even worshipped, by all. In short, than an external threat. King does not seem to
the Marsten House is capitalism made tangible. recognize that he is reversing the source of vam-
When Ben returns, the Marsten House has piric otherness; in Danse Macabre, he contradicts
been abandoned for thirty-six years, and is “be- himself by first stating that Dracula exemplifies
yond renovation” (24). It is at this point, when the type of horror (much like Jackson’s arche-
both the house and the town are beyond repair, type) that comes, “from outside like a stroke of
that the vampire appears, emerging from the Lot’s lightning,” but soon thereafter suggests that the
unconscious need for consumption at the exact “root source of vampirism” is cannibalism, which
moment in history when that instinct no longer in any organized, insular society, would suggest a
has a viable economic outlet, and the residents purely internal threat; the threat of eating oneself
have begun to turn upon themselves in order to (71; 72). King instead re-writes the vampire as
satiate their capitalist drive for consumption. “an intensification of the natural desire for more,
In King of Blood and Darkness, Vincent Sin- no matter the means of obtaining it” (Pharr 96-
gleton convincingly argues that “The Marsten 97) or more specifically, as an inevitable, organic
House is so closely identified with the town of Je- effect of capitalism.
rusalem’s Lot that the two become almost inter- Gossip is the only commodity the Lot seems
changeable….House and town, town and house, to trade in by the fall of 1975, and the particu-
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larly predatory gossip of small towns is yet an- chair, actually, but a chair. More like a throne. A
other reason King’s setting is so appropriate for great carved mahogany thing” (198). Barlow and
the twentieth-century vampire. Barlow describes Straker recognize in Werts a shared appetite, and
his attraction to America on both violent and ap- treat her with the respect befitting one who feeds
propriately capitalistic terms, telling a victim that from others with such public success, one who, in
“[i]n other lands, when a man eats to his fullest appetite, is one of their own.
day after day, that man becomes fat … sleepy … Gossiping becomes, in King’s novel, identified
piggish. But in this land … it seems the more as a vampiric trait. Although the Lot may be, as
you have the more aggressive you become (235, Jonathan Davis writes, “a town of people who are
ellipses original). Barlow goes on to describe the so busy finding faults in their neighbors that they
city as “inimical” to his purposes, for small-town are not able to unite in battle against the vampires
Americans are “stuffed with the aggression and that are preying upon them” (47), the vampire ap-
darkness” necessary for him to operate reason- pears in the town specifically because gossiping
ably unnoticed (235-236). Their aggression, en- has “envamped” them already. They are not so
gendered by declining economic prosperity, takes much victims as willing, although unconscious,
the form of destructive gossip, the symbolic blood participants in their own self-destruction; in
spilled to sustain their need to consume. “If you ‘Salem’s Lot there is little difference between the
lay your hand against [a telephone pole],” the nar- figurative blood-letting of gossip and the literal
rator confides, “you can feel the vibration from cannibalistic feeding of the “real” vampire.
the wires deep in the wood, as if souls had been Jerusalem’s Lot is clearly in economic de-
imprisoned in there and were struggling to get cline, and its residents display a vampiric tenden-
out” (102). In ‘Salem’s Lot, the system of phone cy to gain sustenance from the lives of others,
poles and wires are the town’s vascular system, thus occasioning the advent of a ‘real’ vampire.
circulating lives from pole to pole, home to home. Both truths can be traced, following Moretti’s
If gossip presages the shape of the Lot’s im- model, to unrestricted capitalism. Moretti writes:
pending death, then Mabel Werts is the Queen of “just as the capitalist is ‘capital personified’ and
the Dead. One of ‘Salem’s Lot’s oldest residents, must subordinate his private existence to the ab-
Werts literally spends her days with a telephone stract and incessant movement of accumulation,
in one hand and a pair of binoculars in the other: so Dracula is not impelled by the desire for pow-
“She was a repository of town history and town er but by the curse of power, by an obligation he
gossip, and her memory stretched back over five cannot escape” (92, original emphasis).
decades of necrology, adultery, thievery, and in- The vampire is victim to an endless, insa-
sanity. She was a gossip but not a deliberately cru- tiable hunger. To sate his own appetite, “[h]is
el one…she simply lived in and for the town. In curse compels him to make ever more victims,
a way she was the town…” (72, original empha- just as the capitalist is compelled to accumulate”
sis). Werts is a true “repository” of the Lot’s dirty (Moretti 92). Jerusalem’s Lot, like so many small
secrets: a bank that stores gossip, embellishes it towns, is a victim of capitalism; its land and labor
with interest, and discharges it to eager clients. have been appropriated by large companies and
In Part II of the novel, which appropriately opens powerful businessmen in pursuit of profit, and its
with an epigraph from George Seferis, “This col- residents seek the better pay and cheaper enter-
umn has/ A hole. Can you see/ The Queen of the tainment of the city, effectively destroying the lo-
Dead,” Barlow’s assistant, Straker, treats Mabel cal economy. Going through the motions of life,
Werts like royalty (176). Straker flatters all of the but with no monetary blood to sustain it; the Lot
old, gossipy women who visit Barlow and Strak- quietly awaits the “slow death of days” (210).
er’s Fine Furnishings, but when Werts arrives, Nevertheless, its residents must continue to
he literally enthrones the old woman, bringing consume to survive; although they are victims of
her a chair that Susan Norton describes as “not a American capitalism, the Lot’s residents are still
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American, and as such, have inherited the same from Stoker’s mythos. Because Barlow arises from
capitalist ideology that drives our economy, so the town itself, he does not bring the prerequisite
that as Matt Burke observes, “Their hunger is nev- boxes of unhallowed earth with him. He moves
er satisfied. They’ll eat until they’re glutted” (345, through the town without specific invitation,
original emphasis). In “Stephen King’s American both because Larry Crockett and Hubie Marsten
Gothic,” Gary William Crawford suggests that before him already granted him an all-access
the novel exemplifies “a potent sickness that has pass, and because as an internally produced mon-
corrupted the ideal world proposed by the Amer- ster, Barlow does not need an invitation to enter
ican dream, which has led to a zombie-like stag- his own home. When chased from the Marsten
nation and gradual self-annihilation” (43). This House by King’s band of vampire hunters, Barlow
sickness is capitalism, which both destroys and simply takes up residence in the basement of Eva
sustains simultaneously. Miller’s boarding house, another fitting symbol
In a definition that echoes Moretti’s concep- of the town’s economic decline (King 322-324).
tion of the capitalist vampire, Jackson writes that Eva’s basement, like so many of the settings in
the otherness established by the Dracula myth the novel, is cluttered with cast-off material pos-
“is not confined to one individual; it tries to re- sessions. Since Eva’s tenants are mostly displaced
place cultural life with a total, absolute otherness, victims of capitalism, Barlow’s decision to move
a completely alternative self-sustaining system” there is further evidence that economic decay has
(60). In King’s novel, the residents of ‘Salem’s Lot opened the door to the vampire.
are victimized by the self-sustaining system of Even more significantly, unlike Stoker’s
capitalism and are thereby cursed to focus that Crew of Light, King’s vampire hunters fail to stop
compulsive drive on their own environment. Dr. vampirism from spreading throughout the Lot.
Cody suggests that the ‘Salem’s Lot vampires, Nearly every resident of ‘Salem’s Lot is eventually
“move more on instinct than real thought,” help- assimilated by the vampires: of the major char-
less to prevent the reproduction of their own acters, Father Callahan’s faith is destroyed in a
self-destructive impulses (385). With no local face-off with Barlow and he flees town in shame;
commodities left to consume, the residents of Je- Matt Burke dies of a heart attack caused by the
rusalem’s Lot first turn figuratively, and then lit- stress of the events; Susan (who in death resem-
erally to their neighbors for sustenance. bles Stoker’s Lucy, but in life resembles Stoker’s
True to his source, King honors many of the Mina Harker) is vamped and then staked by Ben;
“rules” Stoker lays out to control and destroy the Dr. Cody is killed by a vampire-laid booby-trap;
vampire. Thus, King’s vampires cannot see their and Mark Petrie and Ben Mears flee to Mexico.
reflections; they are warded away by crucifix- Why should King’s hunters fail where Stoker’s
es, sunlight, garlic, and holy water; a rose upon succeeded, though? In part, this failure is due to
the coffin of a vampire will prevent his rising, as their own disbelief. Mark and Ben likely survive
will sealing their tomb with a piece of the Host6. because of their fertile imaginations, which feed
The scene in which Ben Mears is forced to kill their willingness to believe in monsters: Ben is
the vampire that was once Susan Norton is near- a writer and Mark, still a child, is well versed in
ly identical (although far less phallic) in detail to vampire lore. Imagination enables them to recog-
Arthur Holmwood’s staking of his fiancée Lucy; nize what is happening and gives them faith to act
both use a hammer to perform the “terrible task,” upon that recognition without doubting it. Susan,
although Ben’s weapon is branded (a Craftsman), who doubts that Barlow is a real vampire, makes
perhaps a more appropriate tool to lay a victim of the mistake of approaching the Marsten House
capitalism to rest (Stoker 254; King 339). alone. While the others are planning their next
In other ways, however, the capitalist subtext move, Susan acts rashly, thinking “[t]hey were
of the novel explains some of King’s deviations going at it stupidly, taking the long way around
6
These “rules” appear in Stoker, p. 278-279.
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the barn to prove something that was … probably Mina Harker to her previous pure state. In Stok-
a lot of horseshit anyway” (257). Her unwilling- er’s mythos, the death of the head vampire frees
ness to believe leads her directly into the hands of those whom he has vamped; if they are Un-Dead
the vampire. Mark, who joins her at the last min- (themselves vampires), their freedom means true
ute, survives the encounter, but only because of death; if they are still alive, they are returned to
his powerful imagination and broad knowledge health, no worse for their contact with the vam-
of popular culture. Mark knows about vampires pire. In ‘Salem’s Lot, however, the death of Barlow
from comics, monster magazines, and movies does not free his victims; after Ben succeeds in
(280), and he is still young enough to believe in vanquishing the head vampire, the newly-created
monsters. Tied up by Straker, he forms an escape vampires continue as before, assimilating those
plan based on a book he read on Houdini (286). who remain physically alive until no living resi-
Nevertheless, Susan dies because she refuses to dents remain in Jerusalem’s Lot. Killing the “Head
believe the vampire is a real threat; Mark and Su- Capitalist” does not return the residents to their
san together fail because they each attempted to previous state because their previous state was al-
act alone. ready vampiric. In America, there is no earlier,
The biggest threat to capitalism, from a idyllic economic alternative to which to return.
Marxist perspective, is organization. So long as These newly un-Dead vampires are not
the proletariat are kept distracted, they do not without pity, however. The fate of the Glick fami-
recognize that they have been oppressed, and ly, whose children are both taken early on by the
they cannot imagine an alternative to their cur- vampire, and who succumb as much to grief as
rent condition. Capitalism succeeds through di- to the undead, feels real and tragic. Later, when
verting, distracting, and isolating workers from Mark and Jimmy Cody discover a family of vam-
one another. By the time Matt Burke recognizes pires asleep in a crawl space, they don’t have
that the vampire “understands that it becomes the heart to kill them. The narrator lingers over
easier to conquer if the forces are split and in con- the distorted “family scene”: “Peering in, Jimmy
fusion” (348), the town has already reached the could see three sets of feet, like corpses lined up
point of no return. Susan’s death illustrates this on a battlefield. One set wore work boots, one
scenario, since her failure is caused both by her wore knitted bedroom slippers, and the third
disbelief in vampires, and by her unwillingness set—tiny feet indeed—were bare….The baby, he
to cooperate with the rest of the vampire hunters. thought. How are we supposed to do that to a
Separated from the pack, Susan is easily picked baby?” (387). Finally, after Ben and Mark defeat
off and assimilated. Barlow leaves her to be found Barlow, they are surrounded by the undead, who
and staked by Ben, who realizes, “[h]e left her for seem unsure of what to do without their symbol-
a joke …. Fighting him is like fighting the wind” ic leader: “‘You killed the Master,’ Eva said, and
(344). Barlow repeatedly misleads, divides, and [Ben] could almost believe there was grief in her
distracts the vampire hunters, relying upon their voice. ‘How could you kill the Master?’” (414).
ignorance of his true nature, and easily staying King highlights that these vampires are victims,
one step ahead of them until it is too late to save not just predators.
the town. Van Helsing’s anxiety that the vampires
Despite Barlow’s tricks, Mark and Ben do fi- will “go on age after age adding new victims and
nally track him to Eva Miller’s basement and stake multiplying the evils of the world…. And so the
him. In Dracula, the death of the vampire frees circle goes on ever widening, like as the ripples
its victims, and returns them to their prior state. from a stone thrown in water,” is not played out
Thus by killing Lucy Westenra, “the tiny wounds in King’s novel (Stoker 253). Ben and Mark re-
of the throat disappear” from all of her child vic- turn to the Lot about a year after Barlow’s death,
tims; they will not become vampires themselves after reading newspapers that suggest the vam-
(Stoker 253). Similarly, Dracula’s death returns pire threat is spreading. However, their evidence
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suggests only that the Lot’s vampires are not so are inextricably linked to their environment; the
much interested in world domination as driven by epidemic remains localized and internalized be-
desperation to attack the occasional traveler, inval- cause the vampirism arises specifically from the
id, herd of livestock, or anyone foolish enough to Lot’s economy. Denied fresh blood in life, the
move into the deserted town (421-423). As Mary vampires of ‘Salem’s Lot are equally denied sus-
Pharr writes, “[h]ungry but inept, Barlow’s spawn tenance in death, interminably victims of their
hide like rats in the abandoned town, coming economic conditions. To be a ‘Salem’s Lot vam-
out only when some unlucky passerby wanders pire, it seems, one must be an economic victim
through at night … his nosferatu seem trapped in of small-town decline. Aside from their powerful
a hell of potentially perpetual hunger” (98). Even imaginative faculties, the only two survivors of
in un-death, the town is forgotten, its economic the infestation are also outsiders to the Lot. Ben
needs still unfulfilled. As Crawford notes, King’s has just returned after decades spent away from
vampires resemble zombies more than vampires a town he barely knew as a child, and Mark re-
(43) —they have no free will, no way to stop the cently moved to the Lot with his parents. Both
burning, internalized, insatiable need to consume. are actually treated as outsiders: Mark is bullied
Ben and Mark return anyway, though, deter- at school, and Ben is popularly suspected in the
mined to burn the town and its undead residents death and disappearance of the Glick boys. As a
with it. The novel ends without definite closure. result of their outsider status, they are also two of
However, in “One For the Road,” a related short the first to recognize the danger threatening the
story published in King’s Night Shift (1979), we town. Recognizing danger and naming the source
learn that Ben and Mark did not succeed in de- of that danger is not the same thing, however.
stroying the vampires. The story details the de- “If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be
mise of a family who accidentally takes a wrong conquered,” Matt Burke thinks just before con-
turn into the Lot during a blizzard in 1977. While fronting a vampire (204). Neither Matt nor any-
their unfortunate tale unfolds, we learn the histo- one in ‘Salem’s Lot is ever able to pin down ex-
ry of the intervening two years: actly what has happened there. Even those who
The town stood empty for most of a year…. Then recognize the vampires as vampires are blind to
the town burned flat. It the economics of small-town vampirism; in this
was at the end of a long dry fall. They figure it way King’s novel illustrates a central tenet of
started up by the Marsten House on the hill that Marxism: to defeat capitalism, we must first de-
overlooked Jointner Avenue, but no one knows naturalize it, be made aware of it as an artificial
how it started, not to this day. It burned out of system in order to understand our place in it. The
control for three days, after that, for a time, things revolution Marx imagined is not possible without
were better. And then they started again. (King, class consciousness.
“One” 302). Although Ben notes that the Marsten House
The story is narrated by an old man who lives draws evil men to it, he forgets that he too has
in Falmouth, just six miles north of Jerusalem’s been drawn to the house since childhood. He
Lot, and yet the vampires have not spread even planned to take up residence there himself upon
that far in over two years; they remain tied to the his return, only to find that Barlow and Straker
burnt out remains of their town. have arrived just before him. As a child, Ben had
The tale occurs as part of a frame story; at stolen a snow globe from the house on a dare
the end we are told that the events of that night (28). Near the novel’s end, just before he leaves
occurred “some time ago,” and that today, “[t] ‘Salem’s Lot, Ben returns to his room at Eva Mill-
hings in the Lot go on pretty much as they al- er’s boarding house to take care of two pieces of
ways have…. And every now and then a hitch- business. First, he burns the manuscript he had
hiker or a camper will disappear around there been working on, a potboiler exposé of ‘Salem’s
someplace…” (King, “One” 312). King’s vampires Lot’s secrets. Like Hubie Marsten and Larry
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Crockett before him, Ben had planned to exploit ably, implicates the reader in perpetuating the
the Lot for personal financial gain. Turning from destructive power of capitalism as well, both as
the burning manuscript, Ben then picks up the consumers of things like books, and as consum-
snow globe and shakes it: ers of the small-town dirty gossip the narrator
Through the floating snow you could see a little is all-too-willing to divulge. “[I]n the dark,” the
gingerbread house with a path narrator intones, “the town is yours and you are
leading up to it. The gingerbread shutters were the town’s and together you sleep like the dead”
closed, but as an imaginative boy (as Mark Petrie (210). We are all too ready to uncritically fall into
was now), you could fancy that one of the shutters the destructive cycle of consuming human lives,
was being folded back (as indeed, one of them monsters trapped in a snow globe of our own.
seemed to be folding back now) by a long white
hand, and then a pallid face would be looking out C O DA
at you, grinning with long teeth, inviting you into
the house beyond the world in its slow and end- ‘Salem’s Lot is the first of many of King’s works
less fantasy-land of false snow, where time was a to address threats to the small town, both eco-
myth. The face was looking out at him now, pallid nomic and otherwise, and to undermine our
and hungry, a face that would never look on day- perceptions of the rural charm with which small
light or blue skies again. town life is associated in the American subcon-
It was his own face. scious. In five works of particular note, ‘Salem’s
He threw the paperweight into the corner and it Lot (1975), Needful Things (1991), Desperation
shattered. (1996), Storm of the Century (1999, dir. Craig R.
He left without waiting to see what might leak out Baxley), and Under the Dome (2009), a proverbi-
of it. (417-18) al “deal with the devil” is made for personal grat-
Ben perhaps never recognizes his own part ification, at the expense of everything popularly
in what has befallen the Lot. It is here, near the perceived as idyllic and desirable in small town
novel’s end, that King brings home the true hor- life. In Needful Things and Storm of the Century,
ror of ‘Salem’s Lot. Ben gains sustenance from the deal is literally with the devil: in the first the
capitalism’s drive to exploit and consume; he is devil sells each resident their most desired object
trapped within a system he is helpless to change in exchange for their soul, while in the second
and which he cannot comprehend. the devil tricks residents of a small island into the
A few townspeople offer explanations for why appallingly selfish act of sacrificing one of their
“[t]hings have gone bad in the Lot now” (368). children. In both cases, the towns are not literally
Father Callahan blames Vatican II for dimin- destroyed (although Needful Things’ Castle Rock
ishing our belief in true, biblical evil (which he is nearly burned to the ground), but their inno-
thinks of as capitalized “EVIL”) (147-151). Par- cence is irretrievably lost; what was once good
kins Gillespie, the cynical town constable, blames and innocent is forever corrupted by greed and
violent films for making everyone dead inside. self-interestedness.
He tells Ben the town is “dead, like him [Bar- In all five works, the threat simply appears,
low]. Has been for twenty years or more…. They seemingly arising from the town itself. In Des-
prob’ly like bein’ vampires” (401). None of these peration the evil force literally emerges from a
explanations are particularly satisfying, because copper mine pit, leading to the death of every
none of the characters have access to as much of single resident of Desperation, Nevada, in an act
the town’s sordid past and present as the reader, of atonement for the Chinese immigrants once
to whom the narrator has whispered all of ‘Sa- forced to labor there. The town’s greed for cop-
lem’s Lot’s dark secrets. per ultimately leads to its own demise. In Under
In his portrait of small town decline, King’s the Dome, an alien force inexplicably places an
conspiratorial narrator ultimately, uncomfort- impenetrable dome over a small town, which
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quickly exposes a power-hungry selectman’s il- fault lays not so much in the town itself, but in the
legal drug dealings. By the novel’s end the greed self-destruction engendered by compulsive con-
of a single powerful man has literally poisoned sumption with no healthy means of expression.
the entire village. Jim Rennie is just another mon- King invites us to look at the dirty underside of
ster in a snowglobe. Despite his condemnation of the small town myth, not to expose such places
such acts, though, these works all express King’s as inherently evil and corrupt, but to show us the
ambivalence towards the death of the small town, destructive side effects of capitalism. If we stop
whose contradictions Richard Lingemen express- and look, if we see first-hand the vampires and
es as “good, grievous, kind, helpful in trouble, corpses left behind in the wake of the rush for
cradle to grave; materialistic, insular, suspicious, accumulation at any cost, we must face the truly
set in its ways, canny, backbiting, smothering…. frightening prospect that there is no haven from
(481). Small towns may be gossipy, materialis- capitalistic greed, no way to escape the insatiable,
tic, and insular, but King’s work suggests that the vampiric compulsion to consume.
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Ed. Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller. says in the Sociology of Literary Forms.
New York: Signet-Plume, 1985. 15-42. Print. Trans. Susan Fischer, David Forgacs and David
---. “One for the Road.” Night Shift. New York: Miller. London: Verso, 1997. Print.
Signet-Doubleday, 1979. 297-312. Print. Ryan, Alan. “The Marsten House in ‘Salem’s Lot.”
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The years of postmodern deconstruction have ic trope of the haunted house by seemingly remov-
leached into the Gothic. Mark Z Danielewski’s ing the haunting presence and this narrative, as de-
House of Leaves (2000), Bret Easton Ellis’s Lunar scribed in a pseudo-academic essay by Zampanò,
Park (2005) and S (2013), the collaborative project will be the main focus of this analysis. The house
of J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst, all recycle Goth- which Will Navidson and his wife Karen enter even-
ic tropes, presenting as postmodern Gothic and as tually reveals a dark and impossibly large series of
metafictional novels which highlight their artificial- labyrinthine hallways. The hallway, as Joanne Wat-
ity. Each adheres to and problematizes the trope of kiss attests, ‘refuses to be contained and ultimate-
the haunted house, the found manuscript, and the ly consumes those who attempt to force it to signi-
Gothic sublime for reasons that seem to align with fy’(7). Here toying with the concept of vampirism,
postmodern ideals of deconstruction and fragmen- the house is seen to feed, in a loose sense, on Navid-
tation. Yet there is something distinguishable in their son and his hired explorer Holloway Roberts as they
treatment of Gothic conventions that deliberately navigate the hallways. It draws strength from the
fails to adhere to the postmodern impulse. Within explorers of the space, growing gradually bolder in
each text there are elements that suggest a new form its strategies to isolate or devour them as they are in-
of sincerity, a search for post-irony, that, in fact, creasingly weakened by these acts. The house draws
seem to suggest a yearning for something beyond energy from their terror, becoming steadily more
the surface. I aim to first show how each text seems complex and overtly hostile in response to their in-
primarily to present as postmodern Gothic, before creasing anxiety, sapping their energy and will to
moving on to an analysis of how each can be seen to continue as they progress. It is not just these explor-
appropriate genre tropes in a way that fails to adhere ers of the hallways within the text, but the readers of
to postmodern pastiche and fragmentation. Rather, House of Leaves who are consumed with the desire
these texts will be shown to parody and metafic- to ‘force’ the text ‘to signify’.
tionally highlight these conventions as a means of Alison Gibbons refers to the novel’s seemingly
expressing an increasingly post-postmodern, and obsessive readership as a ‘cult following’ who are
specifically metamodern, sensibility that threads the ‘contributing to online forums, creating websites in
contemporary Gothic. homage, and zealously collecting books to which
[the novel] intertextually refers’ (85)1. All of this
Postmodern Gothic Hauntings speaks of a new Lovecraftian Necronomicon, of a
House of Leaves presents itself primarily as the House of Leaves mythos that extends way beyond
novelization of a haunted house film, though one the limits or control of the text itself. Danielewski
that takes a substantial departure from conventions also pays homage to the Gothic tradition by placing
of such. Within the metaleptic narrative frames the an image of Edgar Allan Poe within one of the col-
novel depicts the events of ‘The Navidson Record,’ lages that form part of the ‘Re-mastered Full-Color’
a cult horror film that distorts the traditional Goth- second edition, where his portrait appears on two
1
For more on this readership, see Bronwen Thomas, ‘Trickster Authors and Tricky Readers on the MZD forms’ in Gibbons, Alison.
Multimodality, Cognition, and Experimental Literature. New York: Routledge, 2012.
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postage stamps.2 This instantly forces the phonet- of and an engagement with a crisis in the legiti-
ic connection between Poe’s well-known house of macy and authority of the structured circulation
Usher and Danielewski’s house on Ash Tree lane, of social exchanges and meanings over which the
situating the text within the same Gothic tradition. father figure presides. More precisely, the usu-
Perhaps most significantly of all, the text presents it- al subject of Gothic Fiction can be defined as a
self as a found manuscript. Johnny Truant finds and transgression of the paternal metaphor. (282)
annotates Zampanò’s manuscript before he himself This aligns with the over-arching theme of Lu-
is edited and we, the reader, are presented with thesenar Park, in which the central conflict is always
edited results. Though not ‘found in the library of that of paternal anxiety, whether that of Bret ag-
an ancient catholic family in the north of England’ onizing over the potential of his father’s return,
(Walpole 5), Danielewski still links his text to the his role as father to his new family or, indeed, his
Gothic convention of the found manuscript device. role as ‘father’ to his novels. Watkiss suggests that
In his text, however, the lines between the frames areBret’s attempts to stabilize his relationship with
consistently blurred as each ‘finder’ constantly in- his father work only to deny him both resolution
terrupts the narrative to question the validity of theof paternal anxiety and a stable lineage at the
others, or their respective manuscripts: the Editors same time (101). Yet Bret’s secured lineage can be
continuously discredit Truant, who questions Zam- argued to be the novel itself, or, rather, the after
panò, who analyses The Navidson Record even as he effects of its production.
describes it. The house on Ash Tree Lane subverts Lunar Park obsesses over the idea of lineage
the haunted house motif, creating a house haunted and, in particular, returns repeatedly to an anxi-
not by spirits or ghosts tied to the space, no Gothic ety over a disrupted legacy. The solution posited
villain forcing his aristocratic supremacy upon his is one achieved via the creation of a text which
victims, merely a relentless malevolence that hounds detaches itself from the stigma of its own creator.
the family. A house haunted only by itself. The text suggests the creation of a novel which
grows without Ellis, devoid of his influence and
Similarly, Ellis’s Lunar Park creates a traditional
haunted house setting before subverting the trope eager, even, to escape his patriarchal influence
in a distinctly postmodern manner. Lunar Park fol- and the poisoning madness of his other creations
lows ‘Bret Easton Ellis’, a famous writer turned sub- - the hairy child-eater and the antagonistic Pat-
urban father living with his illegitimate son, famous rick Bateman. The text personifies the desire of
wife and her daughter. The plot is ostensibly that of author and novel to break away from the toxic
a haunted house, though this becomes an awkward legacy of Ellis’s previous writings, cemented firm-
categorization in light of Ellis’s adherence to post- ly during the final meeting of Bret and Robby.x
modern self-awareness; the novel is rife with iron- Robby appears looking ‘strikingly like Clayton’
ic representations of Gothic and horror cliché, each (Ellis 305), the main character from Ellis’s debut
instance seen through a veil of postmodern pastiche novel Less Than Zero, yet also taller, older and
and deconstruction. It is a text filled with children with a deeper voice. He has become a version of
terrorized by demon dolls, animals attuned to spir- Clayton, or rather a hybridized version of both,
its, grisly deaths, the grotesque, ghostbusters, fake becoming a character that is definitely created
gravestones and spray-on cobwebs. It is a text with a by Ellis yet which has seemingly developed inde-
disruptive past, with horror hair and doppelgangers, pendent of his influence, having become older, no
with vanishing graves and missing children, a text of longer shy and able to forgive in this absence (El-
mysterious strangers and, significantly, paternal anx-lis 305). In this way Bret’s true lineage is not the
iety. As Botting writes of paternity and the Gothic: illegitimate child but Lunar Park itself, the text
Since Walpole, Gothic has emerged as an effect that Robby3 comes to personify. A text which, in
2
These stamps also appear on the uncredited collage beneath the front cover of this edition, effectively framing the text with
Poe. Another frame to add to the growing list.
3
It can be noted that Robby’s desire to be free of paternal influence, whether Bret, postmodernism, or indeed Ellis’s writing stig-
ma, ironically culminates in a section that forces multiple interpretations upon him.
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the final moments, frees Ellis from the detrimen- tyrannical Gothic villain. He becomes a pastiche of
tal legacy of his previous texts and allows him to the trope, representing and subverting it in that he is
continue his career without their stigma attached not stealing his victims away to his own castle, but
to his works. Robby comes to represent the text instead trapping them in a castle of his own making,
in which he is constructed, but also symbolic of born from his own psyche and which builds itself
the texts to follow, becoming the lasting lost leg- around his victims. This is evidenced by a section in
acy of Ellis, ungraspable and leaving to move on which Bret, originally believing that he is the site of
without Bret’s influence. Robby wishes to break the haunting, is explicitly told that ‘Robby is, in fact,
free of his parent’s influence, just as Ellis wishes the focal point of the haunting’ (Ellis 271). Though
Lunar Park and the novels to come to break free he believes the spirits disrupting his life have come
from the influence of his previous texts, a conflict to target him, in truth it is his personal haunting that
which is personified in his own struggles against he forces onto the house and impresses upon his un-
Bateman and Clayton in the text. Robby still ap- witting family, the main centre of which is his son.
pears as Clayton and thus as a representation of Bret imposes his own childhood traumas upon Rob-
Ellis’s writing past, but not a version that the au- by in a repeating cycle of misery, a scenario which
thor has control over. Lunar Park becomes, then, both seem desperate to avoid, again foregrounding
the story of a child’s desperate attempt to be rid the issue of paternal anxiety.
of his father’s influence: whether Bret’s attempts Haunted by his own previous works, Lunar
to escape his father, Robby’s attempts to escape Park fictionalizes Ellis’s desire to break away from
Bret, the text’s attempts to escape its author, or his own literary canon. In contrast, the plot of J.J.
even Ellis’s desire to escape the postmodern, an Abrams and Doug Dorst’s S centres on the search
idea which I will return to later. for unifying meaning within fictional author’s V.M.
As Maria Beville points out, Lunar Park, in a sim- Straka’s eclectic oeuvre. Inside the black sleeve of S
ilar manner to House of Leaves, positions itself with- the reader finds a heavily annotated copy of Straka’s
in the Gothic through its inclusion of a sequence in Ship of Theseus. Here, Jen and Eric, an undergrad-
which Bret’s hair turns white from shock, referenc- uate student and a disgraced postgraduate student
ing and paying homage to Edgar Allan Poe’s “A De- respectively, pass the book back and forth in a col-
scent into the Maelström” (188). Beville also draws laborative attempt to decode the intent of the novel
comparisons to The Fall of the House of Usher, from the marginalia. The mystery they reveal is that
exploring Lunar Park’s allusions to the trope of the of a shadow society of writers known as ‘The S’ and
castle as character, expressed in Poe’s short story and their cult-war with ‘The New S’ a group of corporate
also many other Gothic texts (188–9)4. Instead of spies determined to stop the original ‘S’. The Ship of
the house imposing itself upon the victim however, Theseus narrative itself, not the marginalia story that
Bret’s intrusion into the family home begins to dis- surrounds it, follows a man named only ‘S.’ as he is
tort the physical nature of the building around him. shanghaied onto a ship filled with grotesque muted
The furniture re-arranges itself constantly into what sailors, their objective unknown. These sailors are
at first seem ‘odd formations’ (Ellis 52), the carpet presented as cultists devoted to their vessel and its
begins to become ‘shaggier and darker’ with ‘large unknown mission. They are revealed to self-mutilate
footprints’ of ash ‘stamped’ into it (52) and the paint in a ritualistic ceremony when the latest crew mem-
is seemingly clawed from the walls to reveal an un- ber ‘sews his mouth shut to the din of the crew urg-
dercoat that never existed (102). The house begins to ing him on, stitch after stitch, blood trickling down
transform, Bret eventually realizes, into a facsimile his chin and staining his face, his neck, with droplets
of his childhood home (168-70), and he recogniz- of red’ (Abrams and Dorst 216).
es that it is not the house that is haunting him, but The crew are also seen to degenerate throughout
that he is haunting the house and the family. In this the text as S., after an interval away from the vessel,
way, Bret becomes a postmodern form of the classic sees a sailor as ‘recently a person, not [the] freakish
4
See Rebecca, The Mysteries of Udolpho or House of Leaves for example.
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salt-crusted mute’ that they have become (Abrams captain when Vévoda’s airplanes force entry into that
and Dorst 267). The sailors are not seen as people space (338-9). The captain’s name too pays homage,
anymore, but grotesque mutes, communicating only in the same manner as the previous texts, to the nov-
through the whistles they manage to slot between el’s Gothic roots in the form of reference to Edgar
the red stitches in their lips. Not only are the cult- Allan Poe. As Eric’s annotations suggest, Maelström’s
ists devoted to their ship, but when the ship is de- name is a link to the aforementioned short story “A
stroyed in a cataclysm at sea, they are later seen to Descent into the Maelstrom” (38).
be resurrected along with it. The ship thus becomes S follows the genre of the haunted house story,
a ghost ship, rising from the waters and bringing though again challenging the convention. The site
undead revenants with it from the grave. Never ex- of the haunting is the ghost ship traveling within a
plicitly named, the ship also adheres to the motif of supernatural, previously inaccessible ocean, but the
the Gothic ruin, while transposing it into a mobile actual haunted (or indeed haunting) figure is that of
setting: it is a derelict place, anachronistic to the time S. himself. Not only in the main narrative is S. haunt-
period of the text, warped and torn with supernatu- ed by repetitive figures representative of his past, his
ral denizens and secrets kept within it. S presents the shameful decisions and his love interest, but the tale
ship as a constantly degenerating and partially re- of his life becomes that of a ghostly origin story. As
newing construct, a ‘mad assemblage of misfit masts the text states, he is ‘a man whose physical presence
and decks and hatches and portholes and scuppers is intangible, but whose influence on the world – on
and bulwarks and bowsprit and wheel and rudder its boundaries and its resources, its agonies and as-
and sails […]’ (291). It is a ‘horrible thing’ (291), as pirations – is anything but’ (316). S. (d)evolves into
S. describes, with a crew devoted bodily to its main- an avenging presence in the novel following his ini-
tenance. Each sailor takes shifts at a secret task be- tiation into the cultish crew’s ranks. A chapter titled
neath the deck and this is shown to physically drain ‘Interlude’ follows his own forced lip-sewing ceremo-
them. Again, as House of Leaves presents a space ny, in which various agents of Vévoda across different
which feeds from the fear of those who explore it, time periods are hunted down and assassinated. S.
the ship in S initially seems to feed on the laboured becomes a ghost, able to appear seemingly anywhere
efforts of its crew. As S. describes: and kill his enemies, leaving only a trademark crum-
And every three hours or so, by S.’s crude estima- pled page of ‘some madman’s tale’ (Abrams and Dorst
tion, an exhausted and slack-jawed sailor strug- 313) on the bodies as a calling card. He is a timeless
gles through the hatchway onto the main deck, figure that emerges from the archaic ship (the rep-
blows his whistle, and replaces another sailor resentation of the past) to disrupt the machinations
[…] who then disappears through the hatch to of the present. In this way, S comes to reveal its true
that deepest portion of the ship. […] Now that narrative, namely that of a ghost story but one filtered
S. has seen the entire crew cycle through, he re- through postmodern metafictional experimentation.
alizes they all seem bluer around the gills when It is a ghost story told from the perspective of the
they emerge. And if he’s not mistaken, he’s hear- ghost, not the victims who must discover the ghost’s
ing muted expressions of pain from all about the origins and motive to end the haunting.
ship. (Abrams and Dorst 57)
This, coupled with the brief annotation of ‘It’s Self-Conscious Texts
draining them’ that follows, suggests a vampiric na- Each of these texts highlights the Gothic aesthetic
ture to this floating Gothic ruin, that it feeds from within which it is situated, subverting these tropes
the lives which give themselves willingly to the ship. in order to explore or highlight specific genre con-
It is an undying vampiric ruin, though one that is ventions. They are all novels which ‘self-consciously
not rooted to one place. It is not a castle or an abbey, and systematically draw attention to [their] status as
but a ship; able to travel across water and through an artefact’ (Waugh 2). As metafictions, each nov-
time, and which inhabits a seemingly supernatural el self-analyses even as it progresses. Aligning with
body of water as evidenced by the shock of the ship’s postmodern ideas of deconstruction, pastiche and
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irony, they take pains to remind the reader of their receives no response in this instance.
nature as constructed texts. S forces the reader to In House of Leaves, Lunar Park and S, we find
navigate the paratextual, to consciously disrupt the three texts that manipulate various tropes of the
narrative illusion by the inclusion of inserts and de- Gothic aesthetic both to establish themselves within
tailed marginalia analysis, often heavily annotating the genre and to question the relevance and contin-
the page around the core text.5 The reader is repeat- uation of these literary conventions. One such con-
edly reminded of the presence of the authorial figure vention which all three texts take to task is that of the
of Straka and, by extension, of Abrams and Dorst as found manuscript. As discussed, House of Leaves
the ‘true’ authors of the piece. immediately presents a blurred multiplicity of narra-
Equally, House of Leaves confronts its readership tive layers, the full name for the novel after all being
with demanding typographical sections that force Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves by Zampanò
the reader to scan back and forth between pages of with introduction and notes by Johnny Truant. The
seemingly endless and incessantly self-referential plot itself is buried within these framing narratives:
footnotes.6 This convoluted design draws attention the main narrative of ‘The Navidson Record’ is told
to the physical construction of the novel and is iron- through Zampanò’s analysis, which is found and
ically as inescapable as the labyrinth described, as adapted by Truant, which is passed through the ed-
Navidson finds. Lost and alone in the dark, Navidson itorial process of ‘the Editors.’ Frames within frames
‘turns his attention to the last possible activity, the are presented that seem to intermingle throughout,
only book in his possession: House of Leaves’ (Dan- with no clear distinction of where each belongs.
ielewski 465). Navidson struggles with this reading, Though a hierarchy of editorial layers is somewhat
having to contend, as the reader must, with the fact established (Editor>Truant>Zampanò) there is no
that ‘the words in the book have been arranged in Frankenstein-like clear cut distinction between the
such a way as to make them practically impossible beginning and end of the framing narratives, merely
to read’(Danielewski 467). By placing the text as an a blurring of each that extends even to the paratext,
object within itself, Danielewski reminds the reader where the typical disclaimer of fictional status is ac-
of their place outside it, their own struggles with the credited to ‘The Ed.’. The text demands interrogation
typography and the artificiality of the object. and takes the idea of analysis as a central antagonis-
Lunar Park also applies this metafictional tech- tic force; each character, whether Navidson, Truant,
nique, as one among many, by consistently remind- or Zampanò, is attempting to discover significance
ing the reader that Lunar Park is a fictional con- within their respective found ‘manuscripts’ and are
struct. There is a large portion of the text in which often frustrated in their attempts. Watkiss makes
‘the writer’ (first appearing at 205) appears to offer an excellent argument that the hallways within the
omniscient comments on the action, often in the house on Ash Tree Lane actually represents a text,
form of an internal dialogue with the main character, and that Navidson’s struggle is not one of trying to
or forcing him into action, whether ‘whisper[ing]’ find the limits of the halls, but to find the meaning
(206, 295), ‘murmer[ing]’ (252) forcing Bret to ‘look within the seemingly meaningless text (Watkiss
closer’ (206), or ‘fill[ing] in the blanks’ (252). It is 7–24).
left to the reader to decide whether this refers to Bret All the while, Zampanò is attempting to draw a
Easton Ellis, the extra-textual author of the text, or singular line of argument from an apparently aca-
merely ‘the writer’ as a title for a specific line of anal- demically contested film. He repeatedly draws paral-
ysis followed by Bret Easton Ellis, the character. The lels to fictional texts, including Paradise Lost (Dan-
intrusion of the idea of a textual ‘writer’ again breaks ielewski 4), The Jungle Book (37) and King Lear (47),
the illusion of reality, reminding the reader of the act while continually referencing academic criticism
of textual construction, particularly in one conver- both real and fictitious in an attempt to ground him-
sation with Robby in which Bret asks the writer di- self within the theory. Zampanò, in effect, is attempt-
rectly ‘are you writing his dialogue?’ (221) though he ing to explain via assimilation of other explanations.
5
See page 422 for one example among many.
6
I am thinking of the particularly labyrinthine section from page 119 to 146 here.
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Finally Truant, in finding Zampanò’s manuscript, al technique to highlight the artificiality of their
begins to attempt to annotate, to draw everything texts, as each novel, in this manner, embeds the
together, only to lapse into an autobiographical nar- process of textual construction within the text it-
rative of how he has been influenced by the man- self. Vonnegut and Ellis use this frame to tie the
uscript.7 Navidson seeks to discover significance narrative events to reality, to blur the lines be-
by immersing himself within the text, Zampanò by tween fiction and non-fiction or frame and narra-
taking a removed critical stance and Truant by im- tive. In Lunar Park, this blurring comes immedi-
pressing himself upon it. Each fails and succeeds in ately to the fore, as chapter two begins with “You
various ways in these endeavours: Navidson has his do an awfully good impression of yourself ” just
film, but has lost a brother; Zampanò has a detailed as Ellis stated that the novel would, though the
manuscript, but dies before the bloated piece can line could equally refer to the first instance of its
reach completion; and Truant has passed on his tale, own use as quoted above. This raises the question
but has become vagrant and lost in the process. The of whether the novel begins at the first instance in
house has removed something from Navidson, who chapter one, or if that serves purely as a preface
sought to take meaning from it, Zampanò’s work be- and the true beginning of the novel is at the start
comes tangled within the plethora of voices it sought of chapter two. This blurring places the novel as
to establish itself with, and Truant fulfils his desire to an account within the same novel, a manuscript
be heard, to be noticed, but at the cost of the disso- found within its own manuscript. Lunar Park is
lution of the very self he desired to express. The text a distinct entity referenced several times within
plays with the conventions of the found manuscript Lunar Park and Ellis twists the found manuscript
as containing the narrative by presenting several trope by creating a manuscript found within it-
frames that struggle desperately with their attempts self, by the writer of that same manuscript.
to logically define and thus contain their interiors. S too plays with the convention of this trope
Each found manuscript bleeds outwards, drawing by introducing several layers of the found man-
the reader into an obsession with their text. uscript, both within and without the text. VM
Similarly, Lunar Park is framed by a seemingly Straka’s Ship of Theseus is found first in pieces by
autobiographical account of the author’s life up to the author’s translator who collates the fragments
the moment of the novel’s construction. The text into a text before a copy is later found in a univer-
opens with the following lines: sity library by Jen. The narrative of Ship of The-
“You do an awfully good impression of yourself.” seus presents itself as a found manuscript framed
This is the first line of Lunar Park and in its brevi- by a manuscript discovered by an undergraduate.
ty and simplicity it was supposed to be a return to Though the novel does not blur the boundaries of
form, an echo, of the opening line from my debut these two distinct framing findings it does work to
novel Less Than Zero. (Ellis 3) highlight the artificial nature of the novel; present-
Similarities can be drawn here between the ed as a physical library copy of the book, S forces
opening of Lunar Park and Kurt Vonnegut’s the reader into the role of the ‘finder’ of the found
Slaughterhouse 5.8 Both begin with a chapter that text, compounding the layers of interpretation.9
prefaces the novel, delineated as the ‘first’ chapter, S presents a ghost story that is gradually revealed
in which autobiographical influences, the pro- as the origins and tale of the ghost itself, while House
cess of textual construction, the events leading of Leaves presents a haunted house that is haunted
to its production, and the first and final lines are by the house itself, and Lunar Park is the story of one
discussed. Both also use this same metafiction- man’s haunting of both self and family, of a ghost of
7
See, for example, footnote 98 on page 87 for one example among many.
8
For an excellent argument that Slaughterhouse 5 serves as a Gothic text, see ‘Unrepresentable Terrors: Kurt Vonnegut’s
Slaughterhouse 5’ in Maria Beville’s Gothic-Postmodernism : Voicing the Terrors of Postmodernity.
9
S also plays with the idea of the found manuscript in a similar vein to the ideas presented in James Hogg’s Memoirs and
Confessions of a Justified Sinner in which the Editor’s influence over the representation of the narrative is questioned. S con-
stantly raises the problem of whether Filomela, the translator who finds Straka’s final manuscript, was right to alter the original
manuscript as she is seen to do on several occasions, each time in an attempt to reach out to the vanished Straka with whom
she was in love.
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the father disrupting the life of the son. Each text and parataxis have been over for quite a while (Ver-
affects a postmodern ironic deconstruction, relying meulen and van den Akker, “Notes on Metamod-
on metafictional techniques to highlight the layers of ernism” 2)10. The seminal essay “Notes on Meta-
construction, questioning the standard formulation modernism” suggests that current cultural ‘trends
of conventions. Whether the haunted house, the and tendencies can no longer be explained in terms
found manuscript, the ghost story, paternal anxiety, of the postmodern. They express a (often guarded)
vampirism or the Gothic castle, each trope is high- hopefulness and (at times feigned) sincerity that
lighted and interrogated. This prompts the question hint at another structure of feeling, intimating an-
of whether these novels belong to the postmodern other discourse’ (Vermeulen and van den Akker 2).
period of literary history. They may appear as merely Vermeulen and van den Akker identify this ‘struc-
ironically self-assessing, but, in their re-assessment ture of feeling’ in the arts growing in the wake of the
of the Gothic, each points to a desire and movement apparent decline of postmodernism. It is a ‘cultural
beyond the postmodern. logic, a certain dominant ideological patterning that
leaves its traces across culture’ (Vermeulen and van
Structures of Gothic Feeling. den Akker, “Misunderstandings and Clarifications”)
As metafictions, these texts point to their con- that can be broadly characterised by three trends: a
struction via the manipulation of Gothic conven- desire for sincerity and forms of post-irony; an os-
tions not in order to intimate postmodern or Gothic cillation between postmodern irony and modern
discourse but to make a statement about the disso- enthusiasm, never maintaining a stable position at
ciation between the ‘genuinely felt sense of crisis, either of these (described as a pendulum swinging
alienation and oppression in contemporary society between innumerable poles); and a yearning for a
and … the continuance of traditional literary forms future, or at least for the movement towards one.
like realism which are no longer adequate vehicles Metamodernism is not suggestive of any ideas of
for the mediation of this experience’ (Waugh 11). utopia, as our postmodern training deconstructs
The tropes are not highlighted purely for the pur- such ideas to an impossibility, but instead describes
pose of pastiche, but to suggest a movement away a desire for utopias in spite of this, a movement for-
from the standards to which they conform and the wards despite the futility. A key term is that of an
ideas they explore. These metafictional tendencies ‘informed naivety,’11 in which the subject knows
are not exclusively employed to effect a destabiliza- that an objective is flawed to the point of failure, but
tion of fictional boundaries, though, but often as a chooses to believe in its success and strive towards
comment on the conventions which they challenge it regardless. Metamodernism moves for the sake of
for the purpose of social commentary. Metafiction, that movement, determined to head towards an un-
after all, ‘converts what it sees as the negative values knowable future, it ‘attempts in spite of its inevitable
of outworn literary conventions into the basis of a failure; it seeks forever a truth that it never expects
potentially constructive social criticism’ (Waugh 11). to find’ (Vermeulen and van den Akker, “Notes on
Here, I believe, these authors have created metafic- Metamodernism” 5).
tional works for just such a reason. Each text ap- House of Leaves, S and Lunar Park conform to
pears, not as a postmodern Gothic metafiction but this structure, particularly to the representation of
as a metamodern experiment in the Gothic. a yearning for movement despite not knowing in
Metamodernism, briefly and broadly speaking, which direction they are heading, a desire to head
argues that the postmodern years of plenty, pastiche towards that ‘future presence that is futureless’(Ver-
10
For a far more detailed description of the metamodern see Vermeulen & van den Akker’s original Notes on Metamodernism
& the follow up ‘Misunderstandings and Clarifications’ on the Notes on Metamodernism website. <http://www.metamodernism.
com/2015/06/03/misunderstandings-and-clarifications/>.
11
‘Indeed, if, simplistically put, the modern outlook vis-a-vis idealism and ideals could be characterized as fanatic and/or naive,
and the postmodern mindset as apathetic and/or skeptic, the current generation’s attitude- for it is, and very much so, an
attitude tied to a generation- can be conceived of as a kind of informed naivety, a pragmatic idealism.’ (Vermeulen and van den
Akker, “Notes on Metamodernism”)
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meulen and van den Akker, “Notes on Metamod- Ellis writes, ‘defeat is good for art’.
ernism” 12). House of Leaves presents itself as the
novelization of a film, emphasized by the ‘re-mas- Sublime Experimentation
tered full-color’ edition. Thematically, and as a con- Significantly, all three texts subscribe to the meta-
flict within the text, the novel experiments with the modern via their experimentation with the sublime.
representation of a predominantly visual medium In House of Leaves, the sublime is encountered
- film - within a relatively non-visual format - the through the dark labyrinth which opens up within
novel. Lunar Park begins as an autobiographical the house14. Danielewski uses this space to explore
account of the author which soon degenerates into an idea of the Kantian sublime, subverted by an ad-
an impossible fictional account of events. One ob- herence to the manmade. The hallways are a space
jective of the text seems to be to act as a therapeutic, that replicate the hallways of traditional ‘built’ hous-
or cathartic, artefact through which the author can es, although those twisting and shifting halls could
attempt to resolve lingering issues over the death of have never have been so. The dark corridors pres-
his father.12 Fiction is arguably not, however, the best ent an uncanny sublime by creating a space which
environment in which to deal with these issues, since is both familiar and unfamiliarly autonomous, yet
writing ‘delivers us from nothing, cures nothing, be- which still brings the feelings of terror and awe to
cause by projecting one’s suffering, one freezes it and the fore. The hallways growl, shift, and are seen to
encloses it, one consecrates it rather than obliterat- actively pursue the explorers, but are always still
ing it’ (Blot-Labarrère). Ellis attempts to deal with presented as hallways, inanimate at times, familiar
his paternal anxieties here by ‘enclosing them’ neat- throughout. The Gothic, as Mishra writes, ‘tropes
ly into the Gothic genre before blurring the results, the sublime as the unthinkable, the unnameable,
chasing a catharsis that can only be achieved vicar- and the unspeakable’ (23), a categorization to which
iously through Robby, who stands apart from Bret the hallways adhere. Again they are simultaneous-
at the essential moment of release. S too adheres to ly autonomous and lifeless, familiar and unfamiliar,
these tendencies. It is a definitively physical book in heimlich and unheimlich. They are uncanny. Here
an increasingly digital age, filled with the aforemen- Danielewski presents these seemingly familiar halls
tioned inserts and designed to replicate the look and as unfamiliar and cold, as existing where they cannot
feel of a 1960s library book, despite the ever-growing possibly exist, often transforming into an enormity
popularity of e-books.13 of scale which dwarfs Navidson. He, and the other
Each works in a material not best suited to the explorers, feels that sense of insignificance before
fulfilment of their tasks but continues with the the halls, but also the desire to conquer, to explore,
attempt regardless, aligning them with the meta- to understand, and in so doing, gain transcendence.
modern impulse. The metamodern artist can be As Zampanò surmises, ‘only knowledge illuminates
seen not ‘to employ methods and materials better that bottomless place’ (Danielewski 87). They wish
suited to their mission or task’ (Vermeulen and to gain something conclusive by conquering this un-
van den Akker, “Notes on Metamodernism” 9) as canny sublime, desperately searching for a return to
their primary concern is not to succeed, ‘not to a Burkean sublime in which the mind is expanded
fulfil it, but to attempt to fulfil it, in spite of its by the experience, the self is improved, yet inevitably
‘unfulfillableness’’(Vermeulen and van den Ak- failing and experiencing a fracturing more similar to
ker, “Notes on Metamodernism” 9). After all, as that of Kant’s interpretation.15 Whether Navidson
12
See Ellis’s interview with Tom Waters for Acid Logic, 2005 <http://www.acidlogic.com/bret_easton_ellis.htm> [accessed 15 July 2015].
13
For an excellent argument that Slaughterhouse 5 serves as a Gothic text, see ‘Unrepresentable Terrors: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5’
in Maria Beville’s Gothic-Postmodernism : Voicing the Terrors of Postmodernity.
14
For further evidence, see p.660 in the ‘Remastered Full-Color second edition for the painting ‘Another Great Hall on Ash Tree Lane’, in
which the distant horizon, seen as a wall to the great hall, could equally represent an enormous, calamitous wave or a mountain range.
15
Helen Dennis’s account of the difference between the Burkean and Kantian Sublime may provide a relevant expansion at this point. As she
explains: ‘In Edmund Burke’s account of the sublime the subject encounters the external cause of terror, the subjects’ imagination “swells”
and rises to meet it and feels a triumphant pleasure at having expanded the human facilities to join with it. In Kant, the sublime permits
the imagination a merely futile attempt at this union before collapsing, and this failure produces not exaltation in the subject but obedient
“Respect”’ (55).
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or in fact the reader, the explorers return time and halls, only for Zampanò to fail in this attempt, and
again to the halls, seeking to tame, to understand, thus lapse into delivering a fractured representa-
and knowing that there is never anything new to be tion as his ‘discourse itself breaks down’, his ‘reason
discovered. Within that labyrinth progress is impos- struggles with imagination for ascendency: what can
sible. It is a metamodern duality and multiplicity of be grasped is not equivalent to what is meaningful’
polar desires that Danielewski offers here. A yearn- (Mishra 20).
ing for progress, for movement, for understanding Parallels were also drawn earlier between Lunar Park
and the desire to keep experiencing that sublime, and Slaughterhouse 5, and yet again we can return to
though from within an environment that never es- Vonnegut’s text for comparison. Both texts present
capes from its essentially man-made aesthetic. The terror and horror as sublime moments, or, more spe-
reader oscillates in their desire for the sublime, cifically, in a way which aligns with Kantian ideas of
swinging between unknowing and understand- the sublime. A negative sublime moment occurs in
ing, awe and fear, desire and terror. What House of each text when both Billy Pilgrim and Bret Easton
Leaves shows is a yearning to regain, experience, or Ellis attempt to describe or define the horrors that
even find that feeling of the sublime within a man- they see. As Beville points out, Vonnegut ‘imagines
made Gothic environment. the unimaginable, which can only be achieved from
Unlike the single site of the sublime within ‘The a defamiliarized perspective that is absurd and ter-
Navidson Record’, Lunar Park offers a more contest- rifying’ (110). Similarly Bret, on first attempting to
ed representation of the sublime. The text takes pains envisage the horrors in the woods, is unable to com-
to adhere to the Gothic trope, while also maintain- prehend or represent what he is witnessing and thus
ing a distinct postmodern deconstructive stance. In falls into a series of fragmented images, absurdist in
a moment that adheres to postmodern ideas of the their reliance on cliché. This is a reaction to the sub-
sublime, as put forward by Lyotard, Bret attempts to lime that adheres to postmodern interpretation, but
witness the evil that is hounding him, but cannot and settles on cliché rather than pure fragmentation to
so his interpretation fractures into several Gothic or describe it and so presents a hollow representation,
horror images in quick succession before settling on which ties into the theme of the text; that these grand
the indescribable: He witnesses a ‘shape’ that moves ideals have failed, but we still long for more, for a
in a ‘spiderlike’ fashion, which ‘lurches ‘grotesquely’ break from the postmodern as even the supposed
after the dog, before a figure appears from the woods moments of sublime are mired in postmodern iro-
which flees across the field ‘grasping what appeared ny and deconstruction and fail to illicit their prime
to be a pitchfork’, and is accompanied by the sounds response. It establishes Bret as within that postmod-
of locusts, the emergence of a headstone, large ani- ern tradition which Robby so desperately wishes to
mal shapes and seemingly malevolent-minded wind escape, and which Ellis wishes the next generation to
(Ellis 94–6). Lyotard’s comments on the sublime are move on from. 16
appropriate here as Bret’s ‘imagination fails to pres- The moon, that traditional symbol of the sub-
ent an object which might, if only in principle, come lime, is also given a similar postmodern treat-
to match a concept’(Lyotard 77–8). Zampanò too ment. It becomes a depthless image, a symbol
experiences this negative sublime reaction during only of itself, turning into a background feature
his analysis of ‘The Navidson Record’. Indeed, the that does not instil any terror or call to mind that
challenging typography of the text could be said to sublime reaction. Instead, it is presented as empty
reflect his attempts to record the experience of the of all emotional charge serving only as a useful
16
At several points in the text Ellis laments society’s impact on his son and the fact that Robby’s life seems to lack any ‘poetry
and romance’ (Ellis 113). Robby too is desperate to escape the postmodern structures that Bret imposes, but seems unable to
do so. We see Robby struggling under the tyranny of his father’s postmodern affectation, his obsession with materiality, his
inherent irony, his depthlessness, all of which cause Robby and other boys of the next generation to flee. Though not specifi-
cally commenting on the sublime here, Lunar Park does align itself with a desire for post-postmodernity, seeming to ascribe to
the ‘structure of feeling’ described by metamodernism in its yearning for a movement away from postmodernity, for post-ironic
forms and a subsequent return to sincerity.
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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source of light, much like the screensaver fac- lime within itself via the initial horror, the repeated
simile that shines perpetually from Robby’s com- empty moon imagery, suggesting that these effects
puter screen (Ellis 149). The sublime elements are no longer sustainable for our ideological exper-
are once more used to enforce a motif of post- imentation. The answer, or the attempt to find it,
modern emptiness and a growing desire to move comes from the internalization of the sublime. From
away from these modes of thought. establishing an overpowering sense of self and form-
Beville states that the current ‘fascination with ing moments of sublime terror whenever this sense is
the Gothic is entirely narcissistic. It is to do with threatened or disrupted. Lunar Park poses questions
explorations of self and reality and the terror of the of whether we are wrong to be so mired in postmod-
end, with issues that we cannot know or direct- ern thought, and the answer is merely a fragmented
ly represent’(106), and Lunar Park personifies this suggestion that something must change.
idea by manifesting the sublime in the form of Bret’s While Danielewski looks to the past, and Ellis
sublime narcissism. The sublime in the Gothic con- questions the present, Dorst and Abrams explore the
structs an unnameable dread, a blockage that threat- sublime in an attempt to move beyond current inter-
ens subjectivity itself, and this is displayed as a major pretations. In S, the sublime chiefly manifests through
concern of the text (Mishra 20). Bret’s narcissism is the use of Vévoda’s weapon and ‘the black stuff’ left in
an internalized sublime; the dread is the loss of his its wake. Vévoda, the main antagonist of the novel,
subjectivity, his ego is the blockage that inspires ter- rises to wealth and power through the creation of a
ror and awe. The text begins with him and proceeds super weapon that obliterates everything that it is de-
to center around Bret and his desires not to be im- ployed against. What it leaves behind, the by-product
posed upon by his Father, his new family or his son’s of the extreme destruction, is described mostly as a
needs, and the conflict that arises from this threat- ‘substance.’ This is a black, ink-like tar that corrodes
ens his sense of self. Bret’s focus remains purely on whatever it touches, yet is also able to be converted
the maintenance of his self, whether lying about his into a wine (albeit a flammable vintage that stains the
relapse into substance abuse, visiting a psychiatrist tongue of any who drink it.) This weapon, dubbed a
to help establish a relationship with his son and nev- ‘Black Vine,’ is extracted from a specific source of the
er speaking of him or his own belief that he is the natural sublime. The primary ingredient is discov-
center of the haunting, not his family. These instanc- ered to be mined from a range of mountains on a pri-
es serve to establish Bret as the main focus of the text. vate island, mountains which are decapitated in the
Bret’s narcissism creates an environment which process, a ‘false mesa’ created on the summit with ‘an
overrides the text, his sense of self becomes a sacred open pit’ dug into it, ‘with men and machines hack-
ideal not to be changed or tampered with and so ing out the hill’s innards’(Abrams and Dorst 347). It
any threat to that sense of self, such as the doppel- is this mining process which is seen to destroy, or to
ganger blurring, the past coming back, the warnings defame, the source of sublime inspiration, but the use
from his Father, produce a sublime effect. It creates of the Black Vine itself is specifically linked to the de-
a simultaneous terror and awe within Bret, forcing struction of social myth and history.
moments that demand he expand his mind and self [As a consequence of unleashing a Black Vine]
to be forcefully rejected in favour of his preservation individuals and communities are wiped clean.
of the original self. He is never able to allow himself Traditions and histories, myths […] all gone.
that moment of sublime self-expansion and so each To drink the black stuff is to drink what has been
threat becomes a constant experience of the negative lost.
sublime. The self is threatened and terror is created To hold it in a barrel, S. imagines, is to impris-
before Bret attempts to comprehend that he must on the vital; to cellar that bottle is to warehouse
somehow change. His self must adapt, but he fails to the sublime. To launch a Black Vine is to take all
comprehend this, or represent it, and so lapses into the churning fury of the lost and use it to render
postmodern irony and a fragmented series of failed other people, in some other place, equally lost.
images. Lunar Park establishes the postmodern sub- (Abrams and Dorst 449–50)
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References
Abrams, J.J., and Doug Dorst. S. New York: Botting, Fred. “Aftergothic: Consumption, Ma-
Hachette Book Group, 2013. Print. chines and Black Holes.” The Cambridge Companion
Beville, Maria. Gothic-Postmodernism : Voicing to Gothic Fiction. Ed. Jerrold E. Hogle. Cambridge:
the Terrors of Postmodernity. Ed. Theo D’haen and Cambridge University Press, 2002. 277–300. Print.
Hans Bertens. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009. Print. Bruhm, Steven. “Contemporary Gothic: Why
Blot-Labarrère, Christiane. “A Letter Ending We Need It.” The Cambridge Companion to Goth-
the Affair.” Take Care of Yourself. Ed. Sophie Calle. ic Fiction. Ed. Jerrold E. Hogle. Cambridge: Cam-
France: Actes Sud, 2007. Print. bridge University Press, 2002. 259–76. Print.
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Danielewski, Mark Z. House of Leaves by Zampa- Mishra, Vijay. The Gothic Sublime. Albany: State
no with Introduction and Notes by Johnny Truant. University of New York Press, 1994. Print.
Color 2nd. New York: Random House, 2000. Print. Vermeulen, Timotheus, and Robin van den Ak-
Dennis, Helen M. “‘Questions of Travel’; Eliz- ker. “Misunderstandings and Clarifications.” Notes
abeth Bishop and The Negative Sublime.” Poetry on Metamodernism. N.p., 2015. Web. 26 June 2015.
and the Sense of Panic. Critical Essays on Elizabeth ---. “Notes on Metamodernism.” Journal of AES-
Bishop and John Ashbery. Ed. Lionel Kelly. Amster- THETICS & CULTURE 2.0 (2010): 1–14. Print.
dam: Rodopi, 2000. 53–63. Print. Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. Ed. W. S.
Ellis, Bret Easton. Lunar Park. London: Picador, Lewis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.
2005. Print. Waters, Tom. “Interview with Bret Easton Ellis.”
Gibbons, Alison. Multimodality, Cognition, and Acid Logic. N.p., 2005. Web. 15 July 2015.
Experimental Literature. New York: Routledge, Watkiss, Joanne. Gothic Contemporaries: The
2012. Print. Haunted Text. Cardiff: University of Wales Press,
Lyotard, J F. The Postmodern Condition. Vol. 10. 2012. Print.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984. Waugh, Patricia. Metafiction. London: Rout-
Print. ledge, 1984. Print.
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Articles Volume 4 Issue 1/2. 2015 ©
Since the publication of Horace Walpole’s The house, in a condition of rupture, disjunction,
Castle of Otranto (1764) almost every writer of fragmentation” (Miles 3). This essay will turn to
Gothic, horror and supernatural fiction has pub- humanistic psychological theories concerning
lished a haunted-house story. Remarkably, the human personality development to reveal that
basic recipe for such a tale has changed little since modern (post-war) haunted-house fictions can
the late eighteenth century: 1) select a large build- also accentuate the significance of understanding
ing, preferably old and crumbling, surrounded individual personality—a sense of self—as a life-
with a tarn; 2) stir in a family secret, a heinous long process of growth and change, to which any
crime, and some immoral and sadistic behavior; sense of a fixed identity is alien.
3) invite a set of characters to stay and explore In the stories analyzed in detail below—Shir-
the edifice, until the mansion collapses on top ley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (1959),
of them, the building is exorcised, or the char- Richard Matheson’s Hell House (1971), Clive
acters—barring the protagonist—have stiffened Barker’s The Thief of Always (1992) and Neil
into corpses. In the traditional Gothic castles Gaiman’s Coraline (2002)—the integrity of the
of Otranto, Mazzini in Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Ro- central protagonist’s identity is initially threat-
mance (1790) and Wolfenbach in Parsons’ Ger- ened with collapse by various forces that operate
man Story (1793), the hauntings revolve around within the haunted mansion. These forces, more
themes of usurpation, generation and inheri- often than not, turn out to be representations of
tance; the denouement involves the restoration ideological pressures (class, gender, education,
of order. In short, the crumbling Gothic castle occupation) that hail the protagonist to conform
is (figuratively) restored to its former glory. Ed- to hegemonic socio-cultural and moral standards
gar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and prescribed identities, but which the protag-
(1839) marked a significant turning point in the onist is struggling to match with his or her per-
genre. On top of the traditional Gothic themes of sonal hopes and desires and to assimilate into his
birthright, inheritance and parentage, “the House or her own sense of self. The suspense in many
of Usher is, in allegorical fact, the physical body haunted-house stories arises from the manner in
of Roderick Usher, and its dim interior is, in fact, which the author creates ambiguity concerning
Roderick Usher’s visionary Mind” (Wilbur 264). the way the protagonist will acknowledge and
“The Haunted Palace,” the allegorical poem in- confront these forces, and whether he or she will
serted into the story as a key, equates haunting successfully negotiate them, so as to develop a
with mental disintegration. Poe’s house-equals- stronger personality.
head metaphor has proved influential in the de- The experience of following the protagonist
velopment of the Gothic haunted-house formula on such an “allegorical” adventure is pleasur-
and “there is broad agreement that the Gothic able—thrilling rather than frightening—because
represents the subject in a state of deracination, the plot focuses on the importance of character
of the self finding itself dispossessed in its own building to stave off the stagnation or even the
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disintegration of the protagonist’s personality. the more ambiguous Hill House, for all its em-
Such quest plots foreground action, movement phasis on mental disorientation, also contains the
and revelation. While the castles in “traditional” theme of individual personality growth. The close
Gothic narratives often hide material socio-polit- reading of the text presented below will show that
ical misdeeds—usurpation, imprisonment, con- Eleanor’s death can be understood as the effect of
cealed legal documents—which the (supposedly) coercive ideological forces that stunt this growth,
spectral manifestations help to unearth, many leading to collapse. Eleanor’s death is the result of
modern haunted-house fictions hide, and eventu- her own, and her so-called new friends’ inability
ally reveal, knowledge of the self that the protago- to allow a young woman the space to develop her
nist(s) lack at the outset due to various ideological own sense of self in response to her desires. In
factors such as “class, culture, gender, and econo- doing so, the novel foregrounds the need to resist
my” (Bailey 54), but also education and profession. the potentially pernicious effects of ideological
In James Herbert’s Haunted (1988), for in- pressures on individual personality growth, echo-
stance, the ghostbuster David Ash learns through ing the concerns raised by contemporary human-
his exploration of Edbrook that his insistence istic psychologists that “a fiercely competitive and
on finding natural explanations for supernat- sometimes soul-destroying world” has left in-
ural phenomena does not signify his faith in a creasing amounts of individuals—even entire so-
rationalist epistemology and his pride in being cial groups—“fallen by the wayside” (House, et.al.
a scientist. Instead, the novel reveals, his adher- xvii). While I plan to explore this thesis more ex-
ence to a scientific-rationalist creed hides a fear tensively in a future book-length project—one
of numinous presence. In exploring Edbrook, the that will also analyze the narratological aspects
reader learns, Ash is on a journey of self-discov- of parapsychological discourse—this paper takes
ery, which involves confronting feelings of guilt the first steps towards constructing a reading
over the death in childhood of his sister Juliet, model of modern haunted-house fiction that will
and learning exactly why he has become a para- allow readers to draw a sharper distinction be-
normal investigator. By the end of the story, Ash’s tween the various functions of haunted-houses in
personality has developed. He has recognized popular horror narratives. The texts discussed in
and is able to overcome his feelings of guilt, and more detail below invite an allegorical reading in
has developed a more open-minded approach to which the exploration of the haunted house rep-
the phenomena he investigates, making him a resents a mental drama that plays itself out in ev-
better researcher to boot. In The Ghosts of Sleath eryday life on a daily basis: the struggle of the in-
(1994), Ash thinks of himself as a “psychic inves- dividual to develop a sense of personal integrity
tigator” and deems “ghost hunter” a derogatory in a world governed by ideologically prescribed
term (45). These developments of his personality gender and class roles, as well as economic and
prove instrumental in the course of the sequel, as educational systems that seem to have conformi-
Ash unearths the dreadful secrets of a sleepy vil- ty as their ultimate goal.
lage in the Chilterns. *
Of course not all haunted-house fictions end in Various developments in psychological, so-
greater self-knowledge and a stronger personality ciological and literary-critical theory have fore-
and sense of purpose for the protagonist. In Poe’s grounded the idea that human beings do not
classic tale, the house and its resident family col- have a unique core identity; but humanistic psy-
lapse into the tarn, and Hill House ends with the chological studies have shown that a sense of a
protagonist’s suicide (or was Eleanor murdered stable and “authentic” individual personality is
by a malevolent supernatural force?). While Poe’s of great importance to human well-being. Hu-
story unambiguously concerns Roderick’s mental manistic psychologists like Gordon W. Allport,
disintegration under forces outside of his control, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, and more
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recently David N. Elkins and Kirk J. Schneider, tural theory the conviction that ideological pres-
have researched the important role that individ- sures to conform alienate the individual from his
ual human spirituality—or soul-searching as it is fellows and from himself, emptying human lives
popularly known—plays in the social and men- of meaning and purpose. Such developments
tal processes through which human personalities have led to what Frick called “the crisis of per-
are formed and upheld. Polkinghorne summariz- sonal experience” (4) in the modern world:
es Rogers’ thesis as follows: Rather than a sharing and interaction of my ex-
All living things have an essential pattern of dy- perience with your experience so that we may
namic change that serves to move them toward understand and develop a mutual respect for our
their full and mature development. In a human, unique experiential selves and bring into being
this innate pattern of growth toward full develop- an enlarged and enriched sense of awareness and
ment includes not only the physical growth of the reality, it is more often that we struggle in compe-
body but also the psychological growth to the full tition for the validity of our experience…like two
unique potential inherent in a person. (82) teams engaged in a contest for the highest score.
While the humanistic understanding of “the (Frick 5)
self ” as an ever-ongoing process of becoming— In The Closed Space (1990), Manuel Aguirre
an “urge to develop” a unique and whole person- highlights the Gothic’s focus on the fragmenta-
ality (Polkinghorne 82)—foregrounds concepts tion and disintegration of the self. Again, Poe’s
such as change and variety, Allport stresses that “House of Usher” is invoked as exemplary:
“culture imposes rigid constraints that tend to Usher dies with Madeline, the two die with the
offset nature’s preference for diversity” (Individ- mansion, the mansion dies with—upon —its
ual 26). The demands that a hegemonic ideology reflection in the tarn: a world of growing and
makes on the individual—on the level of class, narrowing affinities has reached its centre. The
gender, ethnicity, education, family, friends and inward collapse corresponds to the image of
so on—can hinder and at worst block the devel- the whirlpool that grasps the ghost-ship in ‘Ms.
opment of an individual’s sense of self. Found in a Bottle.’ (126)
Willard B. Frick put the same argument for- In contrast to images of disintegration or
ward in Marxist terms. He argued that in mod- immanent collapse, various post-war haunt-
ern-day capitalist societies, “alienation and dis- ed-house fictions revolve around a struggle over
affection, personal and interpersonal, is a fact, a meaning and truth—the validity of individual
way of life. We live among strangers and enemies, experience—between various characters who are
even when we are alone” (3). According to Frick, all—from their personal perspectives—trying to
many human beings in late twentieth-century understand the nature of the mysterious super-
capitalist cultures live their life in “a spiritual vac- natural phenomena they encounter. While the
uum” (8). This perspective on the foundations of protagonists in such haunted-house fictions are
human life in modern western culture is echoed often presented as round characters, many of the
by current psychologists sympathetic to the hu- supporting characters are stereotypes, represent-
manistic psychological project, such as Lois Hol- ing various restrictive ideological forces the pro-
zam. She argues that “in the current economic, tagonists must confront and overcome in order to
political and cultural climate, human beings are develop: the Reverend Edmund Lockwood and
socialized as commodified and alienated individ- Dr. Robert Stapley in The Ghosts of Sleath, or the
uals” (House, et.al. 37). Colin Feltham, in turn, workaholic parents in Coraline. Most exemplary
calls for the need of “some pro-humanizing wedge are the parapsychologists Montague and Barrett
between the dehumanizing and irrational forces in Hill House and Hell House respectively.
shaping our collective culture” (House, et.al. 7). Montague and Barrett may seem like odd-ball
Humanistic psychology shares with Marxist cul- figures in their obsession to prove the reality of
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45
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a spirit world, but as characters in an allegorical volves around telephones, computers and home
drama they clearly represent conformity to the offices. In Thief, Harvey’s mother is introduced to
ideological pressure to succeed in life on a pro- the reader as the epitome of convention. Her first
fessional level. On the one hand, they present and only suggestion to break Harvey’s boredom
Eleanor and Ben with the chance to climb out is “…make yourself useful….you can start by ti-
of their slough of despond; on the other hand, dying up your room” (4). From the outset of each
having been offered 100.000 dollars by the me- text, the child’s wonder at the world is stifled by
dia magnate Deutsch, Lionel Barrett, B.S., M.A., the demands of its parents to conform to a pre-
PhD., explains to his wife that a week in a haunt- scribed model of good behavior.
ed house is “an opportunity to prove my theory, A comparative analysis of Hill House, Hell
and provision for our later years. Really I could House, Thief, and Coraline suggests that the the-
ask no more” (5-6). Barrett hopes to complete matic foundation of haunted-house fiction is in-
his masterpiece “Borders of the Human Faculty,” deed what Frick has defined as “the crisis of per-
during his week at the Belasco House. That Mon- sonal experience” in western society. Each story
tague was also aiming for professional glory be- opens by foregrounding the spiritual void of the
comes apparent when the narrator concludes that protagonist. In the course of each story this void
he “retired from active scholarly pursuits after the is slowly filled, for better or worse. The escape
cool, almost contemptuous reception of his pre- from, or destruction of, the mansion—with the
liminary article analyzing the psychic phenome- exception of Hill House—signals a personal crisis
na of Hill House” (246). successfully overcome.
As parapsychologists, Montague and Barrett The opening sentence of Hill House illustrates
exist on the margins of mainstream scientific re- that the void at the center of Jackson’s novel is in-
search, a position with which they are both un- deed a spiritual one: “No live organism can con-
happy. Their goal is to move towards the very tinue for long to exist sanely under conditions of
center of mainstream academia by empirically absolute reality; even larks and katydids are sup-
proving the truth of their theory: “Well, if I do say posed, by some, to dream” (3). The stifling “ab-
so myself, it’s going to give parapsychology rather solute reality” in Eleanor’s life is represented by
a leg up into polite society” (Matheson 212). Un- her family, especially her sister and her husband
surprisingly, Barrett claims he “must maintain a with whom she lives. Their incessant demands
standard” (60) and jumps at any danger of irreg- and continual unkind treatment of Eleanor stifle
ularity or ambiguity creeping into his work. The her ability to explore and develop her personal-
socially marginalized psychics that Montague ity. In Becoming (1955), a book published only
and Barrett have invited to Hill and Hell House— four years before Jackson’s, Allport explains that
Eleanor Vance and Ben Fisher—are merely tools “disordered affiliative relationships may leave an
in their eyes; they will allow them to achieve their ineradicable scar. Pathological anxiety and also
personal goal: academic status and world renown. guilt in adult years may be nothing more than
Where Ash in Herbert’s series learns to embrace manifestations of unresolved infant distress”
the significance of numinous experience, and in (33). Jackson seems to follow this line of thought.
doing so is able to explore his soul, Montague and Eleanor has lived all her life complying with the
Barrett are presented as soulless figures intent on demands of her parents and older sister. The
fame and fortune. narrator points out the extent to which this has
In Gaiman’s Coraline and Barker’s Thief, the negatively affected her psychological well-being:
parents of the protagonists represent the dull “the only person in the world she genuinely hat-
misery of conformity to economic demands and ed, now that her mother was dead, was her sis-
domestic rituals. Coraline’s almost invisible fa- ter” (6). For Eleanor daily life is a struggle against
ther and mother are workaholics whose life re- the overbearing pressures laid on her personality
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by the constricting demands of her conventional mind-numbing effect that living in “absolute re-
sister and her husband. The extent to which El- ality” has on Coraline is further illustrated by the
eanor is wallowing in a “Slough of Despond” be- task that her father suggests she performs to en-
comes clear when the narrator explains that “she tertain herself: counting things in their new flat:
disliked her brother-in-law and her five-year-old “153 blue objects, 21 windows, and 14 doors”
niece, and she had no friends” (6). Bailey con- (17); in other words, reducing lived experience
cludes that “Eleanor has no life she can call her to a set of mathematically measurable data. Sig-
own” (45). Her decision to join Montague’s expe- nificantly, Coraline catalogues only the architec-
dition seems driven by her desire to find a sense tural features of the flat her parents have bought.
of belonging, friendship and happiness, on her The narrator emphasizes at the outset that the
own terms, which can give meaning and purpose old house was too big to be owned outright, that
to her life. other people lived there too, and that it had an
In Matheson’s Hell House, Ben’s decision to attic, cellar and an “overgrown garden” (11). The
join Barrett’s team is similarly driven by a crisis reader knows from the outset that the “reality”
of personal experience. As a young celebrity psy- Coraline is able to measure is much greater than
chic, he was called upon to play the role of su- her parents allow her to explore. When Coraline
perhero. Apparently, only Ben’s paranormal gift does step outside, the image of “a thick white fog”
was believed powerful enough to exorcize the evil that “had lowered over the house” (23) further
mansion from its ghosts, first time round. Unable underscores the limited nature of Coraline’s ex-
to live up to the unreasonable expectations that periences. The narrator aligns mist with “blind-
the media and the parapsychological establish- ness” (31) and parenting with restriction, as
ment had created around his personality, Ben was Coraline’s mother says: “Don’t go too far…and
left mentally scarred as a child and feeling like dress up warmly” (23).
a failure as an adult. Ever since that day he has While the symbolic use of claustrophobic
harbored an irrational desire for revenge on the spaces and social restrictions have been features
house. This negative desire for revenge—and also of the Gothic from the outset, each of the haunt-
on the establishment that flaunted his failure— ed-house stories under scrutiny also contains
needs to be satisfied before Ben can rid himself of supporting characters that offer the protagonist
the sense of shame and defeat that he has carried alternative perspectives on themselves and their
with him since childhood. plight. Miss Forcible and Miss Spink, for instance
Both Thief and Coraline illustrate that the are portrayed as eccentric bohemian types, re-
spiritual-void trope is not limited to midlife cri- tired actresses, who, in contrast to Coraline’s par-
sis fictions such as Hell House, Robert Marasco’s ents, encourage the young girl’s desire to explore.
Burnt Offerings (1973) or Stephen King’s The They understand the significance of play. Rather
Shining (1977). In Barker’s novel, ten-year old than restricting her movement, they offer con-
Harvey Swick is so bored by the grey realities of structive advice: “Don’t get lost, now” (24).
February school days and his mother’s demands These alternative perspectives offer the pro-
to perform mundane tasks that he is in danger tagonists new ways of looking at the mysteries
of forgetting how to breathe (4). In Coraline, the they encounter, which lets them develop their
young protagonist, ignored by her parents, who personality further in relation to the world. What
are always “doing things on computers” (16), and allows the otherwise formulaic genre of haunt-
forbid her to touch any of their valuable posses- ed-house fiction to retain its appeal with readers
sions, is equally in danger of boring herself to is the ever-varying ways in which the protagonist
death. The overbearing power of the dominant negotiates the different worldviews and identities
ideology on Coraline’s personality is highlight- that are on offer through the engagement with
ed by the fact she dreams commercials (21). The the supporting characters. The pleasure of read-
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ing haunted-house fiction resides in the reader’s ly by our adopting a consistent line of procedure
sympathetic engagements with the protagonist’s and sticking to it. Style is the stamp of individu-
exploration of the self; the horror that the reader ality impressed upon our adaptive behavior. (Be-
may encounter is in the sympathetic realization coming 78)
that the individual identity that a protagonist has In many haunted-house fictions, the protag-
developed may be incommensurable with the onists, when drawn out of their “Slough of De-
identities of those around him or her. spond” and into the dark and mysterious ad-
* venture of exploring the mansion, come into
In The Undiscovered Self (1958), Carl Jung an awareness of the tension that exists between
warned against the dangers of constructing an the demands made on them by their culture and
ideal world picture using only averages produced their own private desires, dreams and spiritu-
by amassing statistical data. The modern obses- al needs; their sense of self. Importantly, many
sion to measure, calculate and transform every humanistic psychologists explain that “the real-
facet of human life into analyzable statistics can ization that the socially imposed notions of their
in fact “falsify the truth” (5), he argued. This no- selves do not represent who and what people re-
tion is seconded by Matheson’s text in its pre- ally are frees them to turn their attention to the
sentation of Barrett’s obsession with measuring, submerged voices of their selves” (Polkinghorne
listing and rationally explaining the phenomena 83-84). In haunted-house fictions this moment of
at the house (29). He persistently refuses to join heightened awareness of their individual dreams
forces with the spiritualist Florence, holding fast and desires often leads the protagonists to go ex-
to his thesis that all that she feels and sees is ratio- ploring.
nally explicable. Barrett’s obsession with measur- In his reading of Eleanor Vance’s adventures
able proof—and over-confidence in his “triumph” at Hill House, Bailey takes a Freudian approach
(212) towards the end of the novel—illustrates to Eleanor’s adventure , complete with “the enor-
how amassing statistical data can stifle a correct mous tower, the phallic emblem of Hugh Cairn”
understanding of the world because it does not (42). Unsurprisingly, Bailey is pessimistic about
acknowledge the autonomy of individual expe- Eleanor’s potential for psychological growth. In
rience and cannot take into account the highly contrast to the humanistic-psychological under-
personal, emotional and numinous aspects of life standing of personality as “continually undergo-
that color and govern a human being’s perception ing change” in a life-long process of “becoming”
of and interaction with the work-a-day world, on (Allport, Becoming 19), Bailey interprets Elea-
a daily basis. In the words of Allport: “the de- nor’s personality as fully-formed and even ossi-
mands of our environment cause us to develop fied at the time the novel opens. Like Roderick
numerous systems of behavior that seem to dwell Usher’s mind, any change in Eleanor’s mind, any
forever on the periphery of our being. They facil- revelation of alternative possibilities, can only oc-
itate our commerce with our world but are never cur as a form of disintegration. Bailey describes
geared into our private lives” (Becoming 77). In the thirty-two-year-old woman’s personality as
contrast to this pull towards conformity, Allport governed by a “basic conservatism” that “pre-
explains that vents her from acting on her natural impulses”
a personal style is a way of achieving definiteness (39). Bailey concludes that “Eleanor, succumb-
and effectiveness in our self-image and in our re- ing to the June Cleaver1 ideology of her day, has
lationships with other people. It evolves gradual- surrendered her dreams and ambitions” and has
1
June Cleaver is a fictional character in the 1950s American TV sitcom Leave it to Beaver that Bailey invokes as the symbol of the dom-
inant gender ideology of the time. She is a “doting wife and mother” (Bailey 25), whose sense of self is constructed and upheld entirely
through an uncritical devotion to and performance of the ideologically prescribed female gender role of homemaker. Andrew Smith
has also argued that Hill House “examines the experiences of many white middle-class American women in the 1950s who felt trapped
within the domestic spaces and unable to develop a model of identity that was independent of family life” (152).
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“so wholly internalized the assumptions of the of the house foreground the pernicious effect
patriarchy that she can only look with a curious that ideological pressures can have on individual
mixture of emotions—wonder and vague disap- personality, her story contains many moments—
proval— upon a woman as self-possessed and analyzed in more detail below—in which the
assertive as Theo” (44). Hattenhauer follows Bai- significance of personal psychological growth
ley and describes Eleanor as “a socially maladroit and resistance towards societal pressures is high-
loner” who “lives in her childhood world of fairy lighted. As Andrew Smith points out, Eleanor’s
tales imagining enchanted gardens as she drives eventual suicide “is a moment of liberation and
through the country. She also lives in adolescent self-destruction” (152). By aligning Eleanor’s de-
romances, imagining handsome males rescuing sire for liberation with a road to self-destruction,
her from homelessness” (157). the novel does not condemn the awakening of
I agree with Bailey that Jackson’s novel is a call desire in Eleanor by representing it as a hope-
to women to rebel against the gender ideology less adolescent dream; neither does it vindicate
that hailed women as homemakers, daughters, the old order. Instead, the novel condemns the
wives, mothers and caretakers. I also agree with cultural mainstream’s tendency to downplay the
Hattenhauer that Eleanor is “another of Jackson’s significance of pursuing individual dreams and
disintegrating protagonists” (159), and that in the desires for personal and social well-being.
end—as Jackson wrote in her own notes—Elea- The first moment in the novel in which Eleanor
nor and the House are one (Hattenhauer 159). consciously recognizes aspects of her personality
But if Eleanor and the House are indeed one, than previously unacknowledged is when Theodora
the reader would expect, following the Gothic cajoles her to “go exploring” (46). While Theodo-
formula exemplified by “The Fall of the House of ra suggests this, Eleanor is reflecting on one of her
Usher,” that the house will disintegrate along with first rebellious acts: the purchase of a red sweater
the mind of the protagonist. Instead, Jackson and matching sandals, which she now “wanted to
makes an important change to the formula, as the wear” even though she “never did before” (47).
house remains standing in the final paragraph The mirror reveals to Eleanor that she “looked
of the novel, exactly as it had been described in oddly well…almost comfortable” (47). A new El-
the opening paragraph: “not sane…against its eanor is emerging at Hill House; one who is be-
hills, holding darkness within” (246). Instead of coming aware that her own sense of self clashes
evoking a sense of closure through complete dis- with the identity her family and the broader soci-
integration—“the deep and dank tarn at my feet ety has allowed her to develop. Just as Miss Forc-
closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of ible approves of Coraline’s desire to explore, The-
the ‘House of Usher’” (Poe 417)—the final para- odora voices her approval of Eleanor’s decision to
graph of Jackson’s novel foregrounds the strug- wear her new red sweater (47). Together they fan-
gle between Eleanor’s desire to develop a sense of tasize, in a comic spirit, that Hill House is Dracu-
self, independent from the role prescribed to her la’s weekend hideaway, and the narrator describes
within the mainstream culture, and the coercive them “moving with color and life against the dark
power of historically inscribed ideologies of gen- woodwork and the clouded light of the stairs”
der, class and economy. Even in the late 1950s, (48). Theodora’s assertive personality allows El-
Crain’s house—a symbol of his wealth and pow- eanor briefly to overcome the lingering presence
er—literally holds up “walls continued upright, of her family’s coercive influence. It is in conver-
bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors sation and co-exploration with Theo that Eleanor
sensibly shut” (3 and 246) a feature of “absolute hears the voice in her mind telling her: “Don’t be
reality” (3) but also “not sane.” so afraid all the time” (50). It is in following Theo
Stories are never about their endings alone. that she overcomes the restrictive thought more
Even though Eleanor’s death and the “victory” typical of the concerned parent than the inquisi-
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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tive child: “We can’t go too far” (50). The narrator Eleanor consciously defies social customs and
presents Theo and Eleanor “like two children… the rules of behavior laid down by her sister. The
with an instinct almost animal” (51), relishing narrator describes how she experiences her jour-
the joys of a summer day. ney as a rebirth of spirit: “Time is beginning this
While the grounds and corridors of Hill morning in June….a time that is strangely new
House offer Eleanor a chance to explore new ter- and of itself ” (18). Whatever Montague’s designs
ritory, her failure to successfully negotiate the and the eventual outcome of the adventure, El-
challenges that the various rooms and their sym- eanor is initially elated to explore new territory.
bolic features pose turns the novel ultimately into Just because the reader—who is likely to read the
a tragedy. Hill House is a work of serious, intel- novel with some knowledge of the generic con-
lectual horror, in the nineteenth-century Gothic ventions of the haunted-house tale—can identify
tradition of Mary Shelley, Nathaniel Hawthorne the irony latent in Eleanor’s experience, her ex-
and Robert Louis Stevenson. Kirk J. Schneider perience should not be invalidated as a delusion
has called the classic horror narratives of these mocking her personality.
writers “wisdom-teachings.” Jackson’s Hill House In Hell House the narrator similarly highlights
is no exception. Schneider explains that classic Ben’s genuinely positive feelings as he travels to-
horror “calls on us…to stop, pause, and reflect wards the Belasco mansion. Like Eleanor, who for
deeply upon the phenomenon before us. The the first time is out on her own, Ben is inspired
question that horror poses is, what is it about this enough by Deutsch’s call to join Barrett that he
phenomenon that both attracts and repels; how decides to fly for the very first time (10). Looking
can we learn from it and fruitfully integrate it back at the tragic events of September 1940, Ben
into our lives?” (100). Eleanor’s suicide—or her wonders why he is “going back for more” (10) and
murder by the house if you will—may be the end- decides simply that “it’s time” to face his demons:
ing of the novel proper, but it invites the read- “he never dreamed in his wildest fancies that he’d
er to reflect on the road Eleanor has travelled to be given a second chance at the house” (11). The
reach this end, and on her own motivations and idea of confronting the ghosts in the mansion
her new-found friends’ responsibilities concern- pulls Ben half-way out of his quagmire, which,
ing her well-being. In Hell House, Burnt Offer- even if it proves to be only a half-truth by the end,
ings, and The Shining, all of which are indebted does facilitate a shift in Ben’s attitude towards life,
to Jackson’s example, the mental journey that from sufferer to participant.
parallels the protagonists’ actual adventure, is the Not only adult characters experience mo-
central theme. ments of heightened desire and optimism about
According to Allport, “to understand what a the future when they are called upon to leave
person is, it is necessary always to refer to what their mundane lives and to enter the mysterious
he may be in the future, for every state of the world betwixt their own and their imagination.
person is pointed in the direction of future pos- In Thief, Harvey’s moribund mentality is trans-
sibilities” (Becoming 12). Even if Dr. Montague formed into a keen wakefulness after Rictus visits
desires Eleanor’s presence at Hill House only to his room and tells him of the delights of Hood’s
conduct his psychical experiments, his letter re- Holiday House. Unaware that Rictus is a tempter
veals to Eleanor that there is a world beyond her and Hood’s Holiday House is full of booby-traps,
sister’s apartment, that there is a future for her Harvey keeps one eye open in his sleep to watch
outside of the home. Eleanor’s trip to Hill House for the mysterious man’s return, making sure not
is described from Eleanor’s perspective as an es- to tell his parents “in case they put locks on the
cape from prison and an act of nonconformity. windows to stop Rictus returning to the house”
She sneaks out and “steals” the family car (which (12). Like Eleanor, Harvey experiences his desire
in fact she half owns). In escaping to Hill House, to explore a new world as a form of dissidence.
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This is understandable, since Rictus advertises transformation of the self and problematize the
the Holiday House as a world of unbounded plea- concept of “the normal.”
sure (at a price of course). In Gaiman’s novel, “a shadow” appears, and
Gaiman also foregrounds the theme of ex- “scuttled down the darkened hall fast” (19), im-
ploration by opening his novel with the phrase mediately after Coraline sets out on her journey
“Coraline discovered the door…” (11). In the of discovery. The extension of such imagery to
first chapter alone, the narrator repeats the word passages describing Coraline herself invites an
“explore” eight times in the context of describing allegorical reading of Gaiman’s story. Coraline
Coraline’s desires. Like Harvey, Coraline does not also “cast a huge and distorted shadow” (20).
want to do the obvious things her mother advises: When she turns on the light, she discovers that
“read a book…watch a video…play with your toys” “the old door” her mother had locked “was ever
(14). She wants to find a world beyond the mun- so lightly open” (20). Here Gaiman seems to play
dane and boring confines of her parents’ fashion- with Jungian imagery. After her first discovery
able apartment. Like Harvey’s mother, Coraline’s Coraline dreams of “black shapes that slid from
mother reveals her conformity to mainstream cul- place to place, avoiding the light” (21). Such im-
tural standards: “I don’t really mind what you do… agery foregrounds the possibility that this is a
as long as you don’t make a mess” (15). journey into the self, rather than a Boy’s-Own
To go exploring, Hill House, Hell House, adventure story.
Thief and Coraline suggest, is to take a risk: to In Hell House, “expanding” (55) shadows
step outside of your comfort zone and into a new similarly signal a journey inward. Barrett’s wife,
world. While such openings could signal merely Edith, examines shadows cast by Barrett on the
that these stories belong to adolescent adventure ceiling of the steam-room. Not long afterwards,
tales, the general gloomy atmosphere in which in another dark enclosure, during what is sup-
they play out suggests that joyful entertainment posed to be a routine, technical, examination of
is not the sole design. In this sense, these mod- Florence’s body (to rule out the possibility of the
ern haunted-house texts still utilize the narrative spiritualist committing fraud), Edith is forced
conventions developed by Ann Radcliffe in her to acknowledge to herself that she is sexually
classic Gothic romances of the 1790s: sensitive, aroused by Florence’s voluptuous figure, but can-
imaginative, but troubled protagonists set out on not in any way express her feelings and looks at
a journey that will lead them through picturesque the ceiling instead. Edith often stares at the ceil-
but increasingly gloomy landscapes to the sub- ing, and in the course of the novel she comes to
lime center of a maze-like plot: a ruined abbey in understand that she shares a mental demon with
a forest, the castle of Udolpho, the prisons of the Florence. The Spiritualist lives in denial of the
Inquisition. But where Radcliffe’s protagonists are flesh altogether. Edith, while aware of her body
faced with “real” dangers in the shape of tyrannical and its needs, fears her sexuality, and other forms
fathers, debauched aristocrats and power-hungry of sensual pleasure such as alcohol. Through
abbots, and the supposedly supernatural events the character of Edith, Matheson makes explic-
turn out to projections of their overwrought imag- it his story’s potential to be read as an allegory
inations, the protagonists of many modern haunt- concerning character development. Edith’s fear
ed-house narratives face “real” spirits, symbolic of of sex and alcohol was instilled into her by her
a more personal spiritual crisis. While, as Aguirre mother who had married a drunk and believed
argues, the classic Gothic novel is concerned “with that sex was “evil” (84, 109). When Edith—alone
the preservation of what the character deems at night—becomes conscious of what she has de-
his self, and with the preservation of the normal nied herself all these years, she enters her shadow
world” (114)—order is restored—many modern world where she must confront her demons.
haunted-house fictions revolve around tropes of *
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Ever since that “dull, dark, and soundless day they have trapped you into being like every-one
in the autumn of the year” 1839, “when the clouds else you will never see your cup of stars again”
hung oppressively low in the heavens” (Poe 397), (22). If Hill House is indeed a tragedy concern-
mist, fog, and other oppressive vapors have been ing an individual’s failure to develop a coherent
stock images in haunted-house fiction, often sig- sense of self in the face of ideological pressures,
naling the turn inward. Eleanor is led into the this scene presents the central motif explicitly.
soft-focus fairyland that makes up the gardens Eleanor realizes that she has stopped at Hillsdale
of Hill House: “I’m sure I’ve been here before” against the advice of Dr. Montague. As such she
Eleanor says, “In a book of fairy tales, perhaps” is rebelling against his authority: “I will not be
(52). In her (day) dreams at the house she plays doing wrong. Anyway, she thought obscurely, it’s
out her as yet unexpressed desires: “Journeys end my last chance” (23). Eleanor is developing an in-
in lovers meeting” (56). Matheson’s protagonists dependent will, but simultaneously, her thoughts
champion a “greenish mist” (Matheson 13) as reveal a sense of fear and anxiety in taking these
they enter the Belasco mansion. Harvey is final- first steps towards independence. Just as a child
ly cajoled to follow Rictus while on his way to may rationalize a transgression of parental au-
school on “a foggy morning” (12) and has to pen- thority by telling itself it will obey in future: Elea-
etrate “misty stones” (Barker 16) before entering nor convinces herself that “next time I will listen
the haunted world of the Holiday House. The day to Dr. Montague” (24). Doing your own thing is
after Coraline chases the shadow and dreams of exciting, but also scary and fraught with danger.
black shapes, “a thick white fog…lower[s] over The conversation Eleanor starts up with the
the house” (23) and its surrounding garden. waitress at the diner about finding and remod-
The mist motif allows authors to dissolve the eling old, private homes, in the hills, on the mar-
solid structure of the masonry and to close-off gins of the town, invokes Poe’s “Usher” legacy.
their protagonists from the harsh light of day, The local man warns Eleanor: “People leave this
leaving “absolute reality” and the measurable town….They don’t come here” (26). Eleanor’s
facts and figures that support it stranded outside question to the waitress: “Why don’t you run
the gates. Empirical investigation of the actual away” (26), further signals the juxtaposition of
house becomes difficult and the protagonists’ ex- architectural and environment features with the
ploration of the self becomes easier. Hill House theme of personal integrity. Just like the gruff
is only connected to the “real” world by the elec- man “who comes in every day” (26), the waitress
trical “wires which ran to the house from a spot simply cannot imagine an alternative to her pres-
among the trees” (49). Similarly, Ben emphasizes ent life of quiet desperation. She replies: “would
the isolation of the Belasco house and how in the I be better off?” (26). In their passivity and lack
past “isolated from the contrast of normal soci- of creative thought, the anonymous customer
ety, the society in this house became the norm. and the waitress are like Roderick and Madeline
Total self-indulgence became the norm” (40). Usher, accepting their fate, awaiting their doom.
That the protagonist’s exploration of the house Their personalities seem to have merged with
is in fact a mental quest to fill an existential void the lethargic town unable to provide them with
is highlighted in many haunted-house stories by a positive vision of their future; theirs, like the
a scene in which the soul- searching motif is ex- Ushers, is a life-in-death.
plicitly represented. Having stolen her sister’s car Unable to imagine a life for herself beyond the
and escaped the confines of the familial sphere, routines offered by the greasy diner, the waitress
Eleanor finds herself in a rebellious mood. Stop- does wish Eleanor good luck and says: “I hope
ping for lunch, she finds herself privately encour- you find your house” (27). This statement could
aging a young girl to resist the will of her parents: be read as a sarcastic remark on the part of a cyn-
“don’t do it…insist on your cup of stars; once ical young woman, or as a playful comment by a
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fictional character self-aware of the genre conven- dividuals. Fisher recounts the legend of Belasco’s
tions that determine the outcome of the narrative supernatural powers: “he could will the attention
in which she exists. In the context of the preced- of a group of people to some particular object,
ing conversation, however, it resonates with Elea- and move among them unobserved” (24). The
nor’s hope of finding a new environment, a new reader is invited to understand Belasco as a force,
home, that she can remodel to her own taste to rather than a human being. His presence will un-
suit her newly developing sense of self. The open- lock aspects of each character’s personality that
ing paragraph of the next chapter confirms that the constricting forces of “absolute reality” have
architectural and environmental imagery in the hidden to themselves. After Belasco’s welcome,
novel can be read in light of the theme of per- Florence acknowledges to herself that the house
sonality growth. Eleanor wonders: “everything is will present her with “a challenge” and tells her-
different. I am a new person, very far from home” self that “God will grant her the power” to meet it
(27). Soon after her car rolls through the gate of “when it’s time” (26). Florence acknowledges that
Hill House, Eleanor reflects: “Why I am here?” her greatest challenge will be to enter the chapel,
(28), a fearful moment that signals the true be- adorned with pornographic images. This invites
ginning of Eleanor’s spiritual journey. the reader to interpret her mental journey as one
In Hell House, a recording of Emeric Belasco’s towards the acknowledgement and acceptance of
voice welcomes the protagonists with the words: her sexuality; an intrinsic aspect of any human
I am certain you will find your stay here most illu- life that has been Florence’s Apollyon up to now.
minating…Think of me as your unseen host and The legend of the house seems to represent the
believe that, during your stay here, I shall be with protagonists’ fear of what will happen when their
you in spirit…Go where you will and do what own “mind-forg’d manacles” (Blake l.8) are loos-
you will—these are the cardinal precepts of my ened. Fear of excess can actually inhibit person-
home. Feel free to function as you choose. There ality growth.
are no responsibilities, no rules. ‘Each to his own Ben’s Apollyon is his sense of shame and fail-
devices shall be the only standard here May you ure to perform the role of hero that the popular
find the answer that you seek. (23) media had cast upon him (27); Barrett’s Apol-
On the one hand, Belasco plays the same role lyon is his reliance on scientific instruments to
Mr. Hood does in Barker’s novel. He offers his measure human experience and feeling. He has
“holiday-home” to visitors as an environment for brought an
fulfilling desires otherwise stifled by the hege- astatic galvanometer, mirror galvanometer, quad-
monic cultural standards that pull the individual rant electrometer, Crookes balance, camera, gauze
towards conformity. On the other hand, Belasco’s cage, smoke absorber, manometer, weighing plat-
rhetoric echoes the biblical teaching “Ask, and it form, tape recorder…contact clock, electroscope,
shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock lights (standard and infrared), maximum and
and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7). minimum thermometer, hygroscope, sthenome-
Belasco’s posthumous voice from the phonograph ter, phosphorescent sulfide screen, electric stove,
foregrounds that the protagonists are about to the box of vessels and tubes, the molding materi-
become spiritual seekers as much as parapsycho- als, and the cabinet equipment. (28)
logical investigators. Rather than giving the novel a science-fiction
Belasco’s voice brings about Florence’s first feel, such an over-extensive list of measuring in-
disappearance. She is the first to hear the voice struments mocks Barrett’s reliance on reason,
and is drawn away from the others, deeper into empiricism and statistical data. Matheson’s satire
the structure of the building. As the novel pro- of scientific hubris is further highlighted by Bar-
gresses it becomes clear that Belasco means rett’s unpacking of the “Barrett-EMR” (28) and
something entirely different for each of the in- his impatience for the arrival of the gigantic Re-
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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versor (158), an instrument Barrett calls “My ma- more elegant than Matheson’s strategy. Matheson
chine” (98). Matheson expresses his blunt moral allows his scientist Barrett—who denies the exis-
with unsubtle irony when Barrett’s machinery ex- tence of the supernatural—to point out that the
plodes and flying metal splinters and debris blind ghost hunt will be an exploration of “the sublim-
him as a supernatural force hurls the scientist inal self, that vast, concealed expanse of the hu-
against his Reversor, draining the life from him. man personality which, iceberg-like, inheres be-
Florence and Barrett present personality ste- neath the so-called threshold of consciousness”
reotypes that Ben, the protagonist, has to nego- (36). Hell House, with its explicit sexual imagery
tiate. Florence is like the young Ben—all spir- and graphic violence, has adult modern-horror
it—convinced he was “God’s gift to psychical fans as its target audience. Coraline, by contrast,
research” (33). Barrett represents the opposite while full of horrific details, is presented more
extreme. He wants “mind reduced to matter, sub- like a dark fairy-tale for readers of all ages. The
ject to scientific observation, measurement, and symbolic game Coraline plays with the Other
analysis” (70). His profession forces him to reject Mother is so designed that it can teach younger
unmeasurable phenomena as “mumbo Jumbo” readers the joy of reading allegorically.
(212). As the “effective protagonist” (Dawson *
277), Ben’s task is to unify these two facets of his From a humanistic psychological perspective,
personality into a coherent whole. it is not surprising that Coraline has achieved
In Thief, Barker foregrounds the symbolic vast international success. Gaiman’s soul-search-
status of the house and the allegorical status of ing allegory for the whole family may have struck
the narrative by describing how Harvey first per- a chord with readers because, as David Elkins
ceives Hood’s mansion as “a House that had sure- argues, “we live in a culture that has forgotten
ly been first imagined in a dream” (17). The chap- the soul” (38). From this perspective, the novel
ter closes as Harvey “hurried into the shadow resonates with a key existential crisis of modern
of the Dream-House” (17). In Harvey’s eyes the Western life. Elkins believes, however, that the
house is “a maze” and “a treasure house” (22), but soul “lies buried still under the haze of mortgag-
Mrs. Griffin points out that “nothing’s perfect… es, work schedules, and other stresses of adult
time passes….And the beetle and the worm find life” (4). For Elkins soul refers to a human state
their way into everything sooner or later” (22). of psychological awareness. He defines it against
The melancholy Mrs. Griffin—bereft of solace the notion of spirit: if “spirit is the phoenix ris-
(36)—checks Harvey’s unbridled optimism, and ing from the ashes,” a mental state characterized
her own wisdom-teaching points up her knowl- by hope and the desire to soar and grasp the op-
edge that Harvey’s adventure is primarily a spiri- portunities offered by life, then “soul is the ashes
tual journey. from which the spirit rises” (43). According to El-
Gaiman foregrounds the spiritual quest mo- kins, “soul is always … about descending into our
tif in Coraline by setting his protagonist the depths … learning the lessons that triumph and
challenge of retrieving lost souls. The ghosts achievement cannot teach” (43). In the words of
in the cupboard tell Coraline that to lose your Allport: “to find one’s life one must lose it” (24).
soul is to lose your life. They warn her to “flee What Allport means by this is that in order to de-
while you still have your mind and your soul” velop psychologically, to become more self-aware
(100). Coraline realises that she and her parents of what shapes our personality, we need to empty
are in danger of becoming “a dead shell” (106) our mind of all the pre-conceived notions about
and challenges the Other Mother to “an explor- ourselves and the socio-cultural pressures that
ing game…a finding things game” (108). While are involved in shaping our personalities. Pro-
Gaiman’s choice of imagery may over-emphasize tagonists in haunted-house fictions, like Eleanor,
the soul-searching motif for adult readers, it is Ben, Harvey and Coraline, need to explore their
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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Volume 4 Issue 1/2. 2015 ©
private darkness before they can fill the existen- he enjoys Hood’s pleasures the more the lake will
tial void in their life with a new spirit that will slowly drag him under to finally imprison him
allow them to step back into the sunlight in order with the other children waiting below.
to grow. The tarns, cellars, catacombs and wells, Just as Harvey confronts and survives the dark
ubiquitous to haunted-house fictions, tend to sig- waters of the lake, Coraline is drawn towards a
nal this descent. symbol of darkness. In the garden “there was
Edith’ awakening to the fact that she is “a wom- also a well” (13). Miss Spink and Miss Forcible
an with desires” (131) is preceded by a nightly, warn Coraline of its dangers and tell her to keep
somnambulistic visit through “swirling mist” away. The well is covered and overgrown, but
(87) to the tarn with its “miasma of decay” (15), Coraline spends an afternoon throwing “pebbles
from which she is rescued by Ben. Eventually, the and acorns” (14) through a knothole to sound its
years of repression under patriarchy cause Edith’s depths. During the climax of the story Coraline
desires to erupt in frenzy. Matheson ensures uncovers the well to set a trap for the Other
his reader does not overlook this psychological Mother’s severed right hand. Gaiman emphasiz-
theme. Dr. Barrett states it literally at several mo- es that condemning the Other Mother to eternal
ments in the story. But Barrett’s perspective is darkness is a symbolic act by leaving his young
not the perspective Matheson wishes his reader protagonist confident to face the first day of a
to adopt. While Barrett seems to understand the new term at school.
psychological origins of each woman’s extreme *
behavior—they are “possessed by… [their] inner According to Elkins, “spiritual development
self ” (189)—he is also a male scientist intent on is not about religious rituals and practices; it is
dominating proceedings at the house. As such, about waking up to the wonders of life” (4). By
he represents the pernicious effects of ideolog- the end of Thief, Coraline and Hell House, the ef-
ical coercion in the novel. To his wife Edith he fective protagonists return to the real world with
appears as a “wave of darkness” (135), instantly a renewed faith that it is filled with friendship,
putting a stop to her desperate appeal to have her compassion and kindness, as much as uncertain-
feelings and desires acknowledged. ty, fear and repression. They are no longer bogged
In Thief, the “gloomy and drear” (41) lake down by coercive ideological forces that constrict
with its dark stones “covered in green scum” (41) the growth of their personality, but embrace the
harbors Harvey’s fears: “This was a place where possibilities for further development. Ben “won-
dead things belonged” (41). At Mr. Hood’s Holi- der[s] consciously, what lay ahead of him. Not
day House, Harvey soon becomes suspicious that that it mattered. Whatever it was, he had a chance
the sunny delights offered to him are enjoyed at to face it now” (246). Coraline is not worried that
a great price. He imagines the gigantic fish in the Miss Forcible fails to read her tea leaves correctly,
cold dark lake on the edge of the grounds to be which suggests that she now accepts uncertainty
“prisoners” of the house (42). His anxieties about as the foundation of human consciousness. Her
the house make him more determined to “know successful scheme to imprison the hand of her
everything there is to know” (43). For Harvey other mother in the well shows that she has de-
this moment of emptying his mind of selfish de- veloped an active imagination that can find solu-
sires and prejudice comes when he imagines the tions to the problems she faces. The hill on which
scary fish in the lake to be prisoners. But he is Hood’s Holiday House once stood has become a
only able to defeat Hood after he falls into the lake “healing earth” for the children that Harvey has
himself and recognizes it as “a nightmare place, saved from imprisonment in the cold lake (228).
full of monstrous things.” Harvey realizes that the In many instances, haunted-house fictions
Lake has dragged “a little part of himself…down redefine the concept of home. With the destruc-
into the dark” (71). He knows now that the more tion or “cleansing” of the evil or infected build-
Studies in Gothic Fiction
55
Volume 4 Issue 1/2. 2015 ©
ing, home comes to stand for an understanding ality” by shouting her name in unison: “Eleanor!”
and acceptance of who you are as an individual, The next day Mrs. Montague condemns her ac-
and where you stand in relation to others in your tions as “childish nonsense” (236). Luke similarly
social circle. This motif is tragically, explored in denies Eleanor her self-expression. He exerts his
Jackson’s novel. The climax of this story is Elea- patriarchal authority by telling her she is “no lon-
nor’s experience on the spiral staircase. In this ger welcome as [his] guest” (238). Dr. Montague
scene she often repeats the phrase “I am home” and Theodora also deny Eleanor her own will by
(232). “I am home” she says, “now climb” (232). insisting that she goes home, even though the
Her ascent is described as “intoxicating—going reader has found out that she never had a home.
higher, and higher, around and around” (232). As Theo describes Eleanor’s home in material terms:
she climbs higher she wonders about “your own little place, your own apartment, where
the soft green grass outside and the rolling hills all your things are” (239), revealing her lack of
and the rich trees. Looking up, she thought of the understanding of Eleanor’s plight. Eleanor has to
tower of Hill House rising triumphantly between correct Theo and says: “I sleep in a cot at my sis-
the trees, tall over the road which wound through ters…I haven’t any home” (239). Tragically, Elea-
Hillsdale and past a white house set in flowers and nor is denied a personality by her family and her
past the magic oleanders and past the stone lions new-found “friends”; to all intents and purposes
and on, far, far away, to a little lady who was going she is denied a life, which her tragic death on the
to pray for her. Time is ended now, she thought, final page of the novel confirms. Eleanor’s death is
all that is gone and left behind, and that poor little not a consequence of her innate conservatism, or
lady, praying still, for me. (232) her failure to be more like Theo. Throughout her
On one level, Eleanor seems to have a momen- troubled journey, and up until the final moment of
tary mystical awakening—not unlike Clifford Pyn- the novel, Eleanor questions and searches for the
cheon’s vision of the spiral movement of progress meaning and purpose to her life; her eventual sui-
in Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables— cide (or was it the house?), under the unrelenting
but her mental state on the stairs is understood pressures to conform, reveals how cold, unforgiv-
only as a sign of her madness by the other charac- ing and destructive “absolute reality” can be. El-
ters, brought on by the house’s malign influence. eanor’s fate in Jackson’s Hill House illustrates Carl
While Eleanor hoped she could discover herself at Rogers’ contention in The Way of Being (1980) that
Hill House, the story suggests that her new-found “our attempts…to live in the ‘real world’ which all
friends are no less constrictive than the family she perceive in the same way have…led us to the brink
had left behind. They call her back to “absolute re- of annihilation as a species” (104).
References
Aguirre, Manuel. The Closed Space: Horror Lit- Fiction. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State
erature and Western Symbolism. Manchester: University Popular Press, 1999.
Manchester UP, 1990. Barker, Clive. The Thief of Always. London:
Allport, Gordon W. The Individual and his Re- HarperCollins, 1995.
ligion: A Classic Study of the Function of Religious Bible, The. Authorized King James Version With
Sentiment in the Personality of the Individual. 1950. Apocrypha. Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 1998.
New York: Macmillan, 1978. Blake, William. “London.” Songs of Innocence
---. Becoming: Basic Considerations for a Psy- and Experience. 1794. Oxford: Oxford UP,1970. 150.
chology of Personality. New Haven: Yale UP, 1955. Dawson, Terence. “Literary Criticism and Analytical
Bailey, Dale. American Nightmares: The Haunt- Psychology.” In The Cambridge Companion to Jung.
ed House Formula in American Popular 2nd ed. Eds. Polly Young-Eisendrath and Terence Daw-
son. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. 269-298.
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Elkins, David, N. Beyond Religion: Eight Alter- Miles, Robert. Gothic Writing, 1750-1820. 2nd
native Paths to the Sacred. Wheaton, Ill: Quest ed. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2002.
Books, 1998. Polkinghorne, Donald E. “The Self and Human-
Frick, Willard B., ed. Humanistic Psychology: istic Psychology.” In The Handbook of Hu-
Interviews with Maslow, Murphy, and Rogers. manistic Psychology. Eds. Kirk J. Schneider, et.al.
Columbus OH: Charles E. Merrill, 1971. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2001. 81- 99.
House, Richard, et.al., eds. The Future of Hu- Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Fall of the House of Ush-
manistic Psychology. Ross-on-Wye: PCCS er.” 1839. In Tales & Sketches Volume 1:
Books, 2013. 1831-1842. Ed. Thomas Ollive Mabbott.
Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. 2002. London: Blooms- Chicago: U of Illinois P, 2000. 392-421.
bury, 2003. Rogers, Carl. A Way of Being. Boston: Houghton
Hattenhauer, Darryl. Shirley Jackson’s American Mifflin, 1980.
Gothic. New York: SUNY Press, 2003. Schneider, Kirk J. Horror and the Holy: Wis-
Herbert, James. Haunted. 1988. London: Pan, dom-Teachings of the Monster Tale. Chicago:
2007. Open Court, 1993.
---. The Ghosts of Sleath. 1994. London: Harper- Smith, Andrew. “Hauntings.” In The Routledge
Collins, 1995. Companion to Gothic. Eds. Catherine
Jackson, Shirley. The Haunting of Hill House. Spooner and Emma McEvoy. Oxon: Rout-
1959. New York: Penguin, 1999. ledge, 2007. 147-154.
Jung, C.G. The Undiscovered Self. 1957. Lon- Wilbur, Richard. “The House of Poe.” In The
don: Routledge, 2006. Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Eric W.
Matheson, Richard. Hell House. 1971. New York: Carlson. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1966.
Bantam, 1972. 254-277.
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Articles
As the grounding of the modern vampire nar- plot to Ottoman history and Turkish nationalist
rative in Turkey, Ali Rıza Seyfi’s Kazıklı Voyvoda propaganda of the 1920s, Seyfi’s novel demonstrates
(1928)1, hereafter Vlad the Impaler2, appears in a the characteristics of what Linda Hutcheon calls,
time of change, modernisation, and reform during “transcultural adaptation”. In 1953, this adaptation
the first years of the Republic of Turkey. As widely was in turn adapted into film in a time of quest for
known, the publication of Stoker’s novel coincides development and innovation in Turkish cinema.
with the time when Britain faced with the anxiet- Directed by Mehmet Muhtar, Drakula Istanbul’da,
ies of a changing world evoked by the technolog- hereafter Dracula in Istanbul, was harshly criticized
ical and scientific advancements of the nineteenth by cinema critics of the time, yet recently it has
century. A great deal of literary criticism, therefore, gained national and international recognition due
represents Dracula and accordingly his successor to its successful creation of a gothic atmosphere in a
vampire figures as the reflection of political and so- Turkish context.
cial anxieties of a particular culture in a particular In this article, I argue that these adaptations not
period of time. For decades, Stoker’s Dracula has only constitute the origins of Turkish Gothic by
gone beyond its cultural boundaries and has been transforming Stoker’s text through national identi-
revisited many times in different mediums and by ty discussions of their time rather than copying the
different cultures. These visits appeared mostly in original, but also pave the way for a broader discus-
Judeo-Christian countries with similar religious sion of the Gothic genre in contemporary Turkish
backgrounds, yet each culture interpreted the vam- literature and film by evoking the foundations of
pire figure according to their own historical anxiet- the term Globalgothic. I will develop my argument
ies. However, when the character of Count Dracula through three parts in this article. While the first
appeared in Turkish literature, it did not only con- part provides a short overview of the Gothic schol-
struct the literary role of the vampire figure for the arship and adaptation theories that I will be refer-
first time by emphasising the discussions of nation- ring to throughout the article, the second and third
al identity and race, but also introduced a new genre parts cover the close readings of the adaptations by
to Turkish audiences: the Gothic. disambiguating the strong relationships between
Dracula’s story in Turkey began in 1928, when a the texts and the historical context of Turkey which
novelist, historian, and poet Ali Rıza Seyfi wrote the will shape the core of my argument. The conclusion
first vampire novel in Turkish literature. This nov- of the article challenges the hitherto limited discus-
el was published as an original story in Ottoman sion of the Gothic genre in Turkey and aims to ex-
Turkish with no reference to Bram Stoker and his tend Globalgothic studies by paying attention to a
novel. However, with its alterations that relate the distinctively Turkish Gothic.
1
This novel was relatively unknown until in 1997, when cinema historian and scholar Giovanni Scognamillo translated it from
Ottoman Turkish to modern Turkish and was reissued under the title of Dracula in Istanbul, alluding to the 1953 film adaptation.
In the article, the original name of the novel will be used for convenience.
2
Throughout this article, Turkish quotes, lines, and the names of Turkish works will be translated by the author.
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Transcultural Adaptation and Globalgothic are received by an audience who can actually make
In A Theory of Adaptation, Linda Hutcheon argues sense of what they experience.
that “there is a kind of dialogue between the society Similar to transcultural adaptations, Globalgothic,
in which the works, both the adapted text and ad- too, attaches importance to cultural flows formed by
aptation, are produced and that in which they are globalization. In Globalgothic (2013) Glennis Byron
received, and both are in dialogue with the works argues that “gothic has energetically participated in
themselves” (Hutcheon 149). If we think of the ad- the cultural flows and deterritorialisations that char-
aptation process as a kind of wormhole which opens acterise globalisation”, and thus, the emphasis given
to a different time and place than ours, in Hutch- to American and Western culture has been eradicat-
eon’s theory, not only stories but also historical and ed leaving their places to multidirectional flows. For
social circumstances that create them travel through Byron, thanks to “the increasing mobility and fluidity
this wormhole and form again with the conditions of people and products in the globalised world”, we
of the new world that they arrive at. Though it may are now more aware of the fact that archaic figures
sound scientific, this example explains why trans- of the Gothic genre such as ghosts, vampires, witch-
cultural adaptation is similar to time travel of a pos- es, zombies, and monsters “have their counterparts
sible kind. in other cultures, however differently these may be
According to Hutcheon, an adaptation is a re- inflected by specific histories and belief systems” (3).
telling of an old story by “recreation” and “reinter- These transformations that the Gothic figures expe-
pretation” (8), but adaptation from one culture to rience are, however, always connected to certain cul-
another should offer more than just a translation of tures, geographical territories, or national contexts
that interpretation. Although it has been around for and how they experience the globalization process.
centuries, the reason why adaptation from one cul- Thus, the representations of geographical or nation-
ture to another became particularly popular from al identities constructed, developed, and conveyed
the 1980s onwards is due to the results of cultural through Gothic tropes are vitally important for the
globalization, a term defined as “the process of cul- implications of Globalgothic. In this respect, trans-
tural flows across the world” through “contacts be- cultural adaptations play a crucial role in Globalgoth-
tween people and their cultures – their ideas, their ic studies.
values, their way of life –” (Kumaravadivelu 37- The adaptations discussed in this article provide
38). For Hutcheon, transcultural adaptation is the great examples of this cooperation between transcul-
product of cultural globalization, and thus, needs tural adaptations and Globalgothic through multidi-
to establish certain cultural rules during the adap- rectional cultural flows. Although globalization is a
tation process such as a change in language, place process that occurred only after the 1980s and these
and time period, and mostly a shift in the political adaptations belong to the period before then, it is an
valence and racial and/or gender politics (145-147). indisputable fact that multidirectional cultural flows
However, when these changes are made, it does not were present long before the invention of the term
necessarily mean the adaptation process is over. In globalization – even if they were less prominent. In
order to complete the process the context and the fact, the geopolitical location of modern Turkey, its
meaning of the adaptation should be synchronous classic attribution as the bridge between Europe and
as “for audiences experiencing an adaptation … cul- Asia, its long history as the home of several civiliza-
tural and social meaning has to be adapted and con- tions and the ancient trade routes, such as the Silk
veyed to the new environment” (149). The context Road, indicate that for centuries, the lands of Turkey
and the meaning can only be synchronic after they has been the actual source of multidirectional cultur-
are filtered through the different philosophies, histo- al flows connecting the West and the East together
ries, national identities, religions, races, genders, and in a sense. In this respect, Napoleon Bonaparte’s well
moral values between the original and the adapted known quote, “If the Earth were a single state, Con-
audience. In this way, stories travel in time and they stantinople would be its capital” should be reconsid-
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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ered. The stories of different religions, cultures, and minor changes. Renfield’s character is removed
ideas that Istanbul contains within itself provide a from the plot and Dracula never encounters Mina.
perfect basis for discussions of transcultural adapta- Instead of London, Dracula comes to Istanbul and
tions and Globalgothic. This is why the adaptations of at the end of the novel is killed by the hunter group.
Dracula – one of the most well-known and the most This change in location, from London to Istanbul,
adapted Gothic texts of all time – in Turkish literature initiates the process of transcultural adaptation.
and film tell us not only how the Gothic and the vam- As David Punter suggests, Gothic fiction deals
pire figure were interpreted in Turkey, but also how with “the impossibility of escape from history”,
they contribute to emerging Globalgothic studies by combined with the fact that “past can never be left
initiating an exchange between Western Gothic and behind” and will manifest itself constantly “to exact
Turkish culture that led to the formation of a distinct- a necessary price” (Punter and Byron 55). In Seyfi’s
ly Turkish Gothic. adaptation, this relationship with the past is fully ex-
ploited, more so, in fact, than in Stoker’s text. Since
The Great Turks vs. Dracula: Ali Rıza Seyfi’s Vlad Dracul is a name for a dynasty in Transylvanian
the Impaler (1928) history, there is still controversy about which of the
The Turkish War of Independence fought against Wallachian rulers named Dracul Stoker got his in-
Western imperialist powers ended in victory in 1923 spiration from.4 However, the one that inspired Sey-
and out of the fallen ashes of the Ottoman Empire, fi was definitely Vlad Tepes, a significant enemy of
a new nation was born. The following years were the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century. The
the time that Turkish national identity began to be Ottoman side of the story tells that, having stayed
constituted by reforms and disengagement from the captive in the Court for years, Vlad was sent to his
Ottoman influence. Ali Rıza Seyfi’s adaptation Vlad motherland, Wallachia, and soon started to show
the Impaler coincides with the first years of this revo- disloyalty to the Sultan. When he became one of the
lutionary time and has the title of being the first and cruellest tyrants in world history, impaling people
only literary Dracula adaptation around the world was the most famous of his methods. Records show
until the 1960s (Melton 206)3. To adapt the novel, Sey- that he would order his soldiers to strip the skin
fi changed the characters’ names for Turkish names, from Turkish captives’ feet, pour salt on them and
shifted the time and place of the story from 19th cen- make goats lick those feet. Once he even had a few
tury Britain to Turkey in the 1920s, and changed the women’s breasts hacked off and had their children’s
synchrony between the context and the meaning that head stitched to their bosom instead (Simsirgil 89-
Hutcheon discusses. To put it more clearly, he effec- 185). A Western account also suggests that “Dracula
tively created a transcultural adaptation. may have used ‘germ warfare’, as he reputedly paid
Seyfi’s adaptation opens with a brief explanation Wallachians infected with diseases such as syphi-
by an unknown character who tells the story of the lis or tuberculosis to dress as Ottomans and enter
novel’s discovery on a ferry in Istanbul. This short enemy camps, thus spreading disease to the Turks”
opening resembles the introduction to Bram Stok- (Beresford 84).
er’s novel and serves as a preface to the book, creat- Although, in Romania, Vlad Tepes was regarded
ing a characteristically Gothic effect from the begin- as a national hero who defended his country from
ning. In this way, Seyfi also provides readers with Turkish oppressors, he has been known as a cruel
an introduction to epistolary form. After this, Azmi enemy by Turks throughout the centuries. Thus,
– who is the Turkish equivalent of Jonathan Harker Seyfi strengthened the connection between Count
– begins his journey to Transylvania as a solicitor’s Dracula and Vlad Tepes in his adaptation by using
assistant. The novel continues in a similar manner these historical facts. During his journey to Bistritz,
to Stoker’s original text with the exception of a few Azmi writes in his journal that Guzin (Mina) re-
3
The Icelandic edition of Dracula (1900) has not yet been officially referred as the first adaptation due to lack of any compre-
hensive published study.
4
For a discussion on the topic, see Collins, “The Originality of Bram Stoker’s Character Dracula”.
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called the historical figure Voivode Dracul as soon Turkish blood was one of the most important
as she heard the name of Count Dracula: symbols of national identity at the time. Indeed, the
Guzin knows well the bloody, terrifying and red colour of the Turkish flag was a representation
dreadful deeds that Voivode Dracul committed of the Turkish blood that was shed by the soldiers in
in the history of Turkish Empire and the period the War of Independence. This is why Seyfi uses this
of Mehmed the Second. She told me, with glow- symbol frequently in his adaptation.
ing eyes bursting with anger, the tortures that this I was being the stooge of this unthinkable terri-
wild and cruel monster of the history did to Turks fying creature to go into Istanbul, into my dear-
and other people. (Seyfi 10) est country! There, this damned thing was going
Guzin’s deep interest in history and her angry at- to drink Turkish blood as much as he wants and
titude towards Voivode Dracul attract Azmi’s atten- create a cursed and disastrous neighbourhood for
tion. When he encounters the Transylvanian couple himself. My insane anger overflowed again, I had
who cross themselves and fearfully refuse to answer the idea to save the world from this devil grand-
his questions about the Count, Azmi remembers son of Bloody Voivode. (Seyfi 70-71)
Guzin’s words and suspects the peasants associate As a nationalist who believes that the blood
the Count with Voivode Dracul. represents the nation and the race, Azmi becomes
In his well-known essay “The Occidental racist towards the Count after realizing he is with
Tourist: Dracula and the Anxiety of Reverse Col- the grandson of Vlad the Impaler in Vlad’s castle.
onization” (1990) Stephen D. Arata argues that In the above passage, he thinks of the tortures that
“late-Victorian Gothic in general and Dracula in Voivode Dracul carried out upon Turkish people in
particular, continually calls our attention to the cul- this castle and gets furious both at himself, as he is
tural context surrounding and informing the text, about to help the Count move to Istanbul, and at
and insists that we take that context into account” the Count because of his endless hunger for Turkish
(622). When we look at the historical context of blood. Dr. Resuhi (Van Helsing) also mentions the
Seyfi’s adaptation, we see that the Ottomans were phrase “Turkish blood” in his speech to the vampire
defeated at the end of the First World War, and hunter team:
Western imperialist countries were ready to have Isn’t that strange, my fellows? We will prevent a
their share of Ottoman soil. The Turkish War of In- monster who centuries ago was not satiated with
dependence ended on 24 July 1923 and the Repub- Turkish blood, from drinking Turkish blood
lic of Turkey was founded by Mustafa Kemal (later again in Istanbul and destroy him while armies,
known as Ataturk, meaning the father of Turks) on states could not. Who would believe this? God, is
29 October 1923. it possible to believe? (Seyfi 169)
When Seyfi wrote his adaptation, Turkey was When Dr. Resuhi gathers the team that in-
only five years old and nationalist propaganda was cludes Azmi, Dr. Afif (Jack), Turan (Arthur) and
at its peak. As a historian, Seyfi mostly wrote his- Ozdemir (Quincey), he says that they should de-
torical novels mentioning the great achievements termine their “war plan” (168). He explicitly em-
the Turks made. However, he did not support the phasises the fact that Dracula’s hunger is again for
narrow-mindedness that the Ottomans adopted Turkish blood since he was an enemy of Turks for
before their fall and took a stand with the reform- centuries. Besides, he seems proud that he and
ists. Consequently, after the foundation of Turkey his vampire-hunting team will be the ones who
he started to work as a translator and continued to manage to get rid of this “bloodthirsty monster”.
write on Turkishness, nationalism, and Mustafa Ke- Recalling Stoker’s emphasis on blood and race in
mal’s great leadership (Yildiz 89-109). This is why Dracula, Fred Botting argues that “by engaging in
his adaptation demonstrates the nationalist spirit battle with Dracula, Van Helsing’s vampire-kill-
depicted in Ataturk’s words: “The power you need, ers reawaken racial memories and myths of blood
is present in your noble blood” (898). and honour” (99). In Sadan’s (Lucy) diary entries,
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Turan, Dr. Afif and Ozdemir are all described as ing to narrate the events related to the Turkish
great Turkish men with military backgrounds. Empire in a slapdash manner. It was quite nor-
Sadan writes to Guzin about how all of her suit- mal because he couldn’t behave in another way
ors fought in several battles in the Turkish War of towards a Turk. He wouldn’t be tactless enough
Independence and how they tell stories about the to speak highly and proudly of the man who was
great history that brave and powerful Turkish sol- his namesake and committed those bloody, cruel
diers had written in the war (73-76). The empha- deeds and tortures against Turks – the man who
sis placed upon Turkish blood and race during broke his oath many times and gained epithets in
the 1920s is clearly revealed in Seyfi’s adaptation, our history such as Devil Voivode and Vlad the
through the discussions of nationalism and race Impaler – even though he was a national hero for
that lead the characters to a war with the Count. Transylvanians. (Seyfi 51)
Considering the rise of imperialist ideologies Dracula’s enthusiastic speech on Transylva-
in Britain in the second half of the nineteenth nian history and his omission of details about the
century, Arata interprets Dracula as “a narrative Turkish Empire provide a second dimension to
of reverse colonization,” which “expresses both analyze in the contexts of nationalism and colo-
fear and guilt” as “the coloniser Britain sees its nialism. As Azmi also states above, Vlad is still
own imperial practices mirrored back in mon- regarded as a national hero in Romania. In fact,
strous form” (623). In Vlad the Impaler, however, in 1976, a commemorative stamp was issued in
Dracula is the colonizer, the Western imperial- honour of Vlad to mark the 500th anniversary of
ist who tries to colonize the Turkish blood, and his death (Beresford 77). He is the ultimate tour-
thereby, Turkish national identity. Furthermore, ist attraction for Romania. On the other hand,
Arata states that “in the heart of the reverse col- many nations had to live under the hegemony of
onization narrative is the fear of seeing Britons the Ottoman Empire during its reign, including
ultimately dissolving into Romanians or vam- Transylvania. Thus, from Dracula’s viewpoint
pires or savages” (631). By extension, Seyfi’s use the Turks have been the enemies of his race for
of nationalism reveals the fear of “dissolving into centuries: they are the imperialist Eastern power,
Westerners,” since what Turkish people tried to the primitive “Other” who once tried to colonize
do in the War of Independence was precisely to his people, and he is the noble warrior of his land
prohibit their national identity from being lost to who has to take revenge for his ancestors. When
the imperialist aspirations of the Western world. viewed in this manner, Dracula’s aim can also be
The Count’s persistent enthusiasm about go- interpreted as illustrative of “reverse coloniza-
ing to Istanbul reveals more about his nationalist tion”, as he inwardly believes that the Turks de-
spirit and his insidious plan for colonization. The serve this punishment after all. Therefore, in Sey-
night that Azmi finds out that Vlad is actually the fi’s adaptation, the Count and the Turks switch
ancestor of the Count sheds further light upon roles repeatedly; each becomes the coloniser and
this idea and Dracula’s interest in his country’s the colonized at the same time sharing both the
history, particularly in regard to its connection to guilt of and the fear to which Arata refers.
Ottoman history: Discussions of religion and sexuality are also
I asked the Count some questions about Transyl- effective in constructing national identity and
vanian history, which is relevant to my nation’s Seyfi’s adaptation reflects Turkish people’s ap-
history, the heroic Turkish armies and raiders, proaches to these issues in the 1920s. As Victor
and to old Turkish political ideas … While he was Sage suggests, “the horror novel is shaped by the
talking about the past, the events, and especial- language, imagery and assumptions of a Chris-
ly the wars of this country, he had enthusiasm, tian consciousness” (16). However, in order to
strength and anger as if he had been present at achieve a transcultural adaptation and create
all of those moments … In particular, he was try- a Turkish Gothic atmosphere, Seyfi changed
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this Christian tradition for an Islamic tradition. was not completely excluded. Dr. Resuhi uses the
When his Transylvanian hostess in Bistritz gives blood transfusion process though he strictly be-
him a cross for protection from bad spirits and lieves in the power of the sacred. By connecting
demons, Azmi questions not only her anxious the past and the present, that is, the religious Otto-
state, but also superstition and religion: mans and modernized Turkey, Seyfi portrays the
… she took out a cross … My situation was quite religious identity of Turkey in the 1920s.
sensitive. Was she offering it to me to kiss or giv- As a Muslim country in the process of modern-
ing it to me for protection from evil? In truth, I ization, women and gender were delicate issues
would not persuade my heart to kiss that piece in those days. Influenced by the debate over “The
of wood even to please that pure, kind hearted Woman Question” that took place in the United
woman. This situation was not only ridiculous for Kingdom and Europe during the nineteenth cen-
a Muslim but also unpleasant for an intellectual tury, women in the Empire were allowed to have
person. I took out my amulet from my neck and certain professions. Selling women as slaves or
said: “Madam, do not worry, look, this is my reli- concubines in the Ottoman lands was prohibited
gion’s book on my neck, and it has almighty God’s and in the beginning of twentieth century, wom-
words in it. This protects me as well.” The old en could work as government officials. However,
woman answered: “Very well, but this is harmless the number of women in professional life and ed-
too. Keep that… One, all one! God is one, every- ucation was still very low. After modern Turkey
thing, everybody is one.” (Seyfi 16-18) was founded, women’s rights became a prime is-
As a Muslim, Azmi at first finds the old wom- sue for the new parliament. Due to their active
an’s offer absurd; however, he cannot resist in the roles in the War of Independence, women were
face of her concerned manners. Seyfi’s use of the highly respected and many efforts were made
triangular Muslim amulet instead of the Christian by the government to establish equality between
cross is only one of the examples of the exchange men and women. With the Turkish Civil Law of
of religious traditions. Later on in the novel, Dr. 1926 the role of women in family and society was
Resuhi remarks on another religious exchange: adjusted to modern standards (Gokcimen 10-
“It [the vampire] is afraid of the Koran and the 11). Laws enforcing women’s rights continued to
soil of our Prophet’s grave; in fact, Christians also expand in the following years, creating the mod-
use their crosses for protection from the vampire. ern Turkish woman’s identity.
Shortly, the holiness of religion is regarded as a While Stoker used Mina and Lucy as the face
weapon against vampires everywhere.” (168) Sey- of Victorian women and modernity, Seyfi adapt-
fi replaces the cross with the amulet and the Bible ed these female characters by modelling them on
with the Koran, but the old woman’s words saying the Turkish women of the time. In Stoker’s text,
that all religions and humans are one, indicates Mina is portrayed as the ideal Victorian wom-
that Seyfi’s purpose in this exchange was not to an with her virtuousness and sophistication. In
praise Islam over Christianity, but to create an at- Seyfi’s adaptation, too, Guzin is portrayed as an
mosphere that is familiar to Turkish readers. ideal Turkish girl who is to be the perfect wife,
Arata argues that “reverse colonization narra- but is also as nationalist as the Turkish men when
tives are obsessed with the spectacle of the primi- it comes to her country. In her last diary entry,
tive and the atavistic” and sees Dracula as the East- Guzin writes: “When I read my nation’s great his-
ern uncivilized, primitive “Other” who threatens tory, when I saw, with tearful eyes, the evils that
the modernization in Britain at the time (624). Dracula – this matchless creature that was named
In Turkey from the 1920s onwards, many efforts as The Black Devil and Voivode the Impaler – did
were made for modernization to create a secular to my gallant nation and the murders he commit-
country that appreciates science instead of big- ted, I cursed that I was not born as a Turkish cav-
otry. However, even during this process, religion alryman four hundred years ago” (165). Guzin is
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the image of an educated modern Turkish wom- Sadan cannot go further than being a beautiful
an with her nationalism. Later, Azmi writes about woman, while, with her intellectuality and na-
his astonishment, which turns into admiration of tionalist spirit, Guzin embodies the modernized
Guzin’s strong personality, when he realises that face of Turkish women. Thus, Dracula can drink,
instead of preventing him from going to this war, colonize and contaminate the Turkish blood only
she supports him and the others since she, her- through Sadan, who represents not only the shal-
self, is also a true nationalist. low housewife, but also the old shallow minded
… my Guzin, who is kind as a rose and fragile as state of the country. Meanwhile, unlike Mina in
a hyacinth, is tough as steel, no, tough as a real Stoker’s text, Guzin never encounters Dracula
Turkish girl, to my surprise. Turkish girl… What and remains unharmed, as she is the ideal Turk-
measure should be used to choose a Turkish girl? ish woman representing modern Turkey.
Her proud and wishful state when she sees her
lover or her husband attack the hazards, hard- The First Vampire in Turkish Cinema: Dracula in
ships and impediments must be the easiest way to Istanbul (1953)
choose. (Seyfi 169) In 1953, Count Dracula appeared as a visual char-
The emphasis given to the idea of the “Turk- acter in Dracula in Istanbul in Turkish cinemas.
ish girl” shows that for Seyfi, a Turkish girl is a The influence of Stoker’s text was present, but the
girl like Guzin who is educated and sophisticat- film was mostly adapted from Seyfi’s Vlad the
ed in different subjects, helpful, and caring for Impaler without even changing the names of the
her loved ones, open minded to new ideas, and characters. The adaptation was deprived of Sey-
moreover, brave and loyal to her country and fi’s nationalistic tone, but contrary to the popular
race. However, when Guzin wants to join them in belief in the West, it was the first film adaptation
this war with “the enemy of her race”, the men do to reveal the connection between Vlad Tepes and
not allow it (172). Dr. Resuhi says that she should the Count. The film is also widely accepted as the
stay at home and wait for them but never lose first Dracula adaptation made by a Muslim coun-
her faith in God. Thus, for Seyfi, another feature try and the first adaptation in which the Count’s
of the “Turkish girl” is that she is always in the fangs are seen. Nevertheless, the fact that Dracu-
background, as she obeys the men and prays at la in Istanbul is Turkish cinema’s first horror film
home. This shows that Seyfi’s version of the new indicates that there is more to say about the film
Turkish woman identity combines both modern- in terms of its contribution to the construction of
ization and a traditional role of woman, and feeds Turkish horror cinema and the Turkish identity
on Turkish nationalism to grow strong. that it represents.
Sadan, on the other hand, is not as ideal as Dracula in Istanbul is a reinterpretation,
Guzin and becomes the actual victim of the as the original story line does not fully change,
Count’s irresistible attacks. According to Arata, but the modifications create a new retelling of
“Dracula not only endangers the personal iden- the Dracula story which makes it another trans-
tity of individuals, but also Britain’s integrity as a cultural adaptation. Hutcheon argues that “these
nation” (630). Moreover, as Botting also claims, stories adapt just as they are adapted, and that
“Dracula manages to realise his plans of coloni- alterations are therefore necessary and inevitable
sation through women and their bodies” (98). In outcome of creativity” (31). One of the basic al-
Seyfi’s adaptation, however, Guzin remains unaf- terations in the process of transcultural adapta-
fected and Sadan is the only vessel for Dracula tion is again a shift in time and place. As the title
to reach the Turkish blood. Sadan is easily vic- hints, in Dracula in Istanbul, the destination of
timized by Dracula because of her various weak- Dracula changes from England to Istanbul, as it
nesses. She never acts like an unvirtuous girl, also does in Seyfi’s novel, and the story takes place in
but she is too shallow by comparison to Guzin. the 1950s instead of the late nineteenth century. Apart
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from this shift, Dracula in Istanbul also changes the change in religious traditions and iconography
cultural associations constructed in the original text, makes it easier for the Turkish audience to empa-
making the synchrony between the context and the thize with Azmi and the other characters.
meaning available to Turkish audiences. Although religion is regarded as the ultimate
The unprecedented representation of the way to scare away the vampire, garlic also plays a
historical connection between Vlad Tepes and significant role in this war against Dracula. In Drac-
Dracula in Dracula in Istanbul has been already ula’s castle, Azmi meets a male servant who looks
suggested by several Western scholars (Silver and like a mixture of Renfield, the hunchback of Notre
Ursini 155; Joslin 47). In the film, when Azmi Dame and Frankenstein’s assistant Igor in Univer-
(J. Harker) and Dracula spend their first night sal’s adaptations. Azmi gives him his cigarette case
in the castle, Dracula tells Azmi that everybody and in return for the favor, the servant saves his life
is afraid of him as they think him cruel like his by winding a bunch of garlic around his neck, and is
ancestor Vlad the Impaler. While Azmi wanders himself violently killed by Dracula because of this.
around the ancient castle, the audience sees steel Dr. Naci states that Sadan, who was bitten by Drac-
armour and swords that would remind them of ula and is still under his effect, can only be killed by
medieval knights. In this context, the setting also filling her mouth with garlic and staking her in the
helps the audience to recognize the connection heart. Azmi also uses garlic several times to scare
between the Count and Vlad. As Julie Sanders away Dracula and to save Guzin from getting bitten.
suggests, adaptation can constitute a simpler way At the end of the film, Azmi throws away all of the
of making texts “relevant” or easily comprehensi- garlic inside their house and on Guzin’s neck, saying
ble to new audiences and readerships (19). Thus, that he is fed up with garlic and its smell. Guzin’s re-
the purpose of this connection is obviously to en- action here adds a comical effect to the idea of garlic
gage attention and create a sense of familiarity for as a weapon: “But I could have used them for stuffed
Turkish viewers. However, when the shift in reli- eggplant!” Stuffed eggplant is an authentic Turkish
gion was shown on the screen, a new dimension recipe that contains a lot of garlic. This last scene
was added to the altered cultural associations. portrays an aspect of Turkish identity by defusing
As the director and scriptwriter used Seyfi’s the threat of the vampire with domestic humor cal-
adaptation as a source text, the shift from Chris- culated to appeal to the national audience.
tian to Islamic tradition retains Seyfi’s use of reli- Dracula in Istanbul was also the first time that
gious imagery with slight differences. In the very the vampire in its visual form was introduced to
beginning of Stoker’s story and in Tod Brown- Turkish audiences. Peter Hutchings suggests that
ing’s adaptation Dracula (1931), a Transylvanian “the history of the Dracula story is a history of
woman warns Jonathan Harker and gives him a constant reinterpretation” (79). Likewise, creat-
cross to protect himself. In Dracula in Istanbul, ing Dracula’s character is itself a reinterpretation.
when the woman warns Azmi not to go to Drac- While Max Schreck creates a monstrous vampire
ula’s castle, he shows his ‘“cevşen”’ – an Islamic figure in Nosferatu (1922), Bela Lugosi portrays
amulet with prayers written inside it – to show the aristocratic face of the vampire in Browning’s
that he does not believe in superstitions and says: adaptation. Although his baldness resembles
“I only believe in my Allah”. In Stoker’s text and Nosferatu, Atıf Kaptan can be associated with
Browning’s Dracula, the cross on Harker’s neck Bela Lugosi’s Dracula rather than with Nosferatu,
prohibits Dracula from biting him when he gets as he wears a tuxedo and, in some scenes, a cloak
a paper-cut. In Dracula in Istanbul, however, the that helps him to change into a bat. Turgut Demi-
cross is replaced with a “cevşen” in the same scene. rag, the producer of Dracula in Istanbul – who
Furthermore, instead of the Bible and holy water, studied in the USA and worked in Paramount
Dr. Naci (Van Helsing) gives pocket size Korans Studios – admits that he was influenced by Bela
to the vampire hunter team for protection. This Lugosi and Max Schreck and explains his casting
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decision in an interview: “I chose Atif Kaptan for narratives have also expanded. The vampire’s
Dracula deliberately because his facial features, hunger for blood has since been read as a rep-
eyes, looks, physical appearance, and acting tal- resentation of his sexual desire for both females
ent were the most appropriate for this character” and males and its bite is considered as an act of
(Scognamillo and Demirhan 64). Indeed, like all sexual intercourse as much as a way of survival.
the other vampire films, Kaptan’s eyes and looks, William Hughes comments on this as such:
play a significant role in creating the Dracula In its sexualized quest for blood … the vampire
character, as the hypnotic influence of the Count’s is capable of disrupting what have been cultur-
looks are used in the film. ally perceived as discrete patterns of sexual be-
Another significant feature of this Turk- haviour, and of evading the taboos that polarise
ish-made Dracula was that he had fangs. In Drac- heterosexuality and homosexuality. The vampire
ula: A British Film Guide, Peter Hutchings claims represents, in this sense, the liberation of those
that Dracula’s fangs were first shown in Horror of sexual activities or desires that have been alleged-
Dracula (1958): ly proscribed or censored in society or repressed
Hammer’s poster offered something new as well. within the self. (199)
The fangs, for example. Lugosi had not worn Arguments relating to sexuality in Dracula
fangs; nor had any of his vampiric successors … particularly target the arrival of Dracula while
To find a befanged vampire, you would have had the three sirens were about to drink Harker’s
to track down a critically acclaimed but hard-to- blood. This scene is not included in Browning’s
see German film from 1922, F.W. Murnau’s Nos- 1931 adaptation. Seyfi’s adaptation, on the other
feratu: A Symphony of Terror, and even there the hand, includes this scene in which Dracula rep-
fangs were different, rodent-like incisors rather rimands the sirens for touching Harker, who be-
than the more dignified canine fangs sported by longs to him. In Dracula in Istanbul this scene is
the Hammer Dracula. (7) also offered; although there is only one woman,
Peter Hutchings was right: Nosferatu had it is reproduced in the same spirit. Azmi walks
fangs but they were two front teeth like a rabbit’s into a room and falls asleep from the effects of
or a rat’s and not retractable. However, Hutchings the sleeping gas that comes out of the eyes of the
was also wrong because Dracula in Istanbul was Nosferatu painting on the wall. When the wom-
the first film that showed Dracula with his fangs. an comes and tries to kiss Azmi, Dracula scolds
These fangs were both retractable and could even her, emphasising that Azmi belongs to him, and
be seen when Dracula’s mouth was closed. In fact, adds: “Your turn will come too but first, me!”
just before the title sequence, the audience sees When the woman leaves with a baby that Drac-
Dracula’s wide open dull eyes as if they are hyp- ula brought for her, Dracula awakens Azmi and
notizing and then, they see his fangs with a pull- compassionately helps him to stand up and walk
back shot. Within the film, Dracula’s fangs are to his room. Either to show sexual affection or
seen a few more times when his hunger for blood hospitality as a host, Dracula’s desire for blood is
is aroused, particularly in the paper cut scene and reflected through his tenderness towards Azmi in
his scenes with Sadan and Guzin. this scene.
Vampirism and sexual desire are two con- In Seyfi’s novel adaptation, Dracula’s de-
cepts that have been associated with each other sire for blood was not discussed as sexual, but
since the birth of the vampire narrative and they in the context of race and nation. Therefore, in
have been repeatedly discussed and developed Dracula in Istanbul, perhaps the most effective
into new dimensions through adaptations. With creative change made by the director and the
the influence of rising interest in gender identi- scriptwriter is the way of addressing sexuality.
ty and Queer studies in the early 1970s, sexuali- In Seyfi’s adaptation, Guzin was a teacher’s assis-
ty discussions about Dracula and other vampire tant with a deep interest in history and was also
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66
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portrayed as the perfect modern Turkish woman. senting her purity and virtue as an engaged wom-
However, in Dracula in Istanbul, Guzin is a show an. Having watched her in admiration, Dracula’s
girl. When the story shifts from Transylvania to Is- sexual desires are heightened and he gets closer
tanbul, the audience sees a flashing sign for Guzin’s to Guzin to bite her. Once again, Azmi comes to
show and a big stage with a closed curtain. When save his fiancée and scares the Count away with
the curtain is opened, Guzin starts to do the cha- garlic. In both scenes Guzin’s beauty and sexuality
cha dance in a special frilled costume. In another are represented through her body. Moreover, Guz-
scene, Guzin becomes a belly dancer and dances in’s belly-dancing scenes complete the process of
to an oriental song with a palace setting behind. localization of the story while adapting the work
As is widely known, belly-dancing is still a popu- from one culture to another.
lar dance in Turkey and a part of Turkish culture. Another reason for this creative alteration in
Scognamillo and Demirhan suggest that “for years the adaptation process was of course due to com-
what represented Istanbul on the silver screen were mercial concerns and the situation of the film in-
beautiful belly dancers dancing in front of a palace dustry. The 1950s were the years of development
setting” (65). In this respect, Guzin’s profession not and innovation for Turkish cinema. Until the end
only emphasises sexuality but also shows the em- of the Second World War, Turkish cinema was
phasis given to cultural heritage when creating a mostly controlled by people from the theatre in-
transcultural adaptation. dustry. It was only after 1945 that Turkish cinema
This shift from teacher’s assistant to lead dancer increased its film production. Until then, Egyp-
makes Guzin the actual object of Dracula’s sexual tian films with songs and dance became one of
desire. The first encounter between Dracula and the most popular genres of the time (‘Turk Sine-
Guzin takes place in Guzin’s house. Guzin comes ma Tarihine Genel Bir Bakis’, sinema.gov.tr). In-
home from work and starts to undress herself. In fluenced by Egyptian cinema, the Turkish melo-
this scene her sexual desirability is stressed, par- drama form was constructed. This is a form in
ticularly when she goes to the bathroom and takes which women are portrayed as sufferers who find
off all her remaining clothes to get into the foamy themselves singing on the stage at some point
bathtub. The camera pans down to her legs and during the film. In Dracula in Istanbul, too, both
the audience understands that she is complete- the effect of these Egyptian films and the melo-
ly naked. While having her bath, she hears some drama form are perceivable. While Sadan por-
noises and goes to check wearing her bathrobe. All trays the woman who suffers, Guzin portrays the
of a sudden, Dracula appears in front of her. The woman on the stage, and both are victimized by
camera shows Dracula’s eyes with a close-up shot Dracula. Therefore, while adapting a Western lit-
and Guzin faints. Just as the Count is about to feed erary myth, Dracula in Istanbul combines one of
on her, Azmi arrives and scares Dracula away with the most popular genres of the time with a fresh
garlic. However, the climax occurs when Dracu- genre for the Turkish audience: the Gothic.
la finds Guzin towards the end of the film. After In fact, the first horror film of Turkish cinema
completing her performance, Guzin is about to was Scream, which was made by a young direc-
leave the theatre when she sees Dracula waiting tor called Aydin Arakon in 1949. The story starts
for her on the stage. The hypnotizing influence of on a rough night; a doctor comes to a mysterious
Dracula’s eyes is stressed again with another close- mansion in which he meets a girl who has been
up shot and Dracula starts speaking slowly with driven mad by her uncle because of an inheri-
his deep voice: “You are an amazing creature. I am tance issue. However, the film did not get much
going to drink your blood bit by bit. Tonight you attention and got lost over the years (Scognamillo
will dance only for me.” The piano starts to play and Demirhan 63). Thus, Dracula in Istanbul is
by itself, which is a cleverly conceived detail, and accepted as the first horror film in Turkish cin-
Guzin dances for Dracula in a white dress repre- ema, as it is the earliest that has survived until
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today. Even though the film seems quite simple erature and film do not deteriorate or warp the
and superficial in effects by today’s standards, for original as Turkish critics thought for a long time,
its time, it had a high budget compared to others but they give the original a new impulse – a Turk-
and achieved box office success. The producer, ish impulse – and maintain the popularity of the
Turgut Demirag, remarks that “the shooting took Dracula myth within a Turkish context. When
seven weeks and that all indoor scenes and a few creating an adaptation from another culture, an
outdoor ones were shot on a set” (Scognamillo adapter reinterprets – as Hutcheon would say –
and Demirhan 64). The art director of the film, creating a familiar world for their audience from
Sohban Kologlu, says that he and his crew “made a pre-existing world. Thus, as transcultural rein-
an extra effort for the bats and armour, for Drac- terpretations, Vlad the Impaler and Dracula in
ula’s downhill scrambling, and for the model of Istanbul construct the synchrony between the
Dracula’s castle”. He also adds that one of the main context and the meaning sifting the original text
deficiencies of the equipment was a fog machine, through a cultural transformation. Seyfi’s adapta-
and to create fog, especially in cemetery scenes, tion serves as an embodiment of Turkish nation-
“a group of thirty or more people from the crew alism in the 1920s, particularly due to its praise of
with at least three cigarettes in their mouths had Turkishness and its tone of protest against West-
to lie down on the floor and puff smoke during ern imperialism, which is represented in Count
the shooting” (Scognamillo and Demirhan 66). Dracula’s character. He depicts a very accurate
Despite all these difficulties, the director and picture of Turkey’s historical, political and cultur-
his team worked hard to create a better produc- al state in the 1920s. Dracula in Istanbul, on the
tion than the other films of its time, but they could other hand, creates an inception point for pro-
still not avoid some harsh criticism. In one of the ducing the Gothic atmosphere in Turkish cinema.
most popular cinema magazine of the time, Yildiz, The film, as a transcultural adaptation, is notably
Sezai Solelli criticizes the film in his column “The creative at reflecting Turkishness through do-
Man on the Luxurious Chair” claiming that the mestic aspects such as belly-dancing and Turkish
film is “neither scary nor funny”. He also criticizes cuisine, and addresses sexuality through Guzin’s
the cinematography, suggesting it is too dark (qtd. dancing profession.
in Scognamillo and Demirhan 68). However, the Scognamillo and Demirhan argue that a na-
cinematography is what creates a Gothic effect. tional Gothic tradition does not yet exist in Tur-
According to Scognamillo and Demirhan, the film key (‘Korkunun Turkcesi’). It is true that, although
is the first trial in Turkish cinema into creating an these adaptations contributed dramatically to the
atmosphere rather than a horror film (68-71), and emergence of the Gothic genre in Turkey, the
it succeeds in doing that particularly in the scenes Gothic did not become popular until the late
that take place in Dracula’s castle. Thus, the Gothic 1980s, around when the globalization process en-
atmosphere that these scenes and the rest of the tered Turkish people’s lives, and has still not been
film create is a first in Turkish cinema. Dracula in established as a genre, at least not officially. The
Istanbul succeeds in initiating the Gothic mode in reasons for its unpopularity were mostly due to
Turkish cinema and becomes a Turkish classic on political and social instabilities between the 1950s
several counts. and 1980s. The earlier nationalist propaganda of
the 1920s and these instabilities together created
Tracking down Turkish Gothic for Globalgothic the understanding that realist works were better
Linda Hutcheon suggests that “an adaptation is suited for educating people and transmitting soci-
not vampiric” since it keeps the original “alive” by ety’s problems and concerns. Fantasy and horror
“giving it an afterlife”, instead of leaving it to die were regarded as unrealistic compared to the so-
or getting paler after sucking its life source (176). cial problems of those crucial times. Another rea-
Indeed, the adaptations of Dracula in Turkish lit- son was the cultural differences between Western
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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Gothic and Turkish culture. As the Gothic has al- adaptations which initiated the inclusion of the
ways been associated with the Christian tradition Gothic in Turkish studies and offer a starting point
and iconography, Turkish writers and filmmakers for tracking down the Gothic genre in Turkey.
had difficulties when trying to create the genre These adaptations managed to create the Gothic
within the Turkish cultural context. One of the atmosphere in Turkish contexts by using represen-
reasons that the genre emerged later in Turkish tations of national identity and thus, they form the
literature than in Christian cultures is seen as the origins of Turkish Gothic. However, they cannot
difference in religious beliefs (Yucesoy 42-43). define what Turkish Gothic is on their own. Since
Indeed, religious imagery used within the Gothic Globalgothic also emphasises the role of national
genre in Turkey shows, and should show, differ- identity and culture while looking at the counter-
ent interpretations of the Gothic that have devel- parts of Western Gothic in other cultures, critical
oped in Christian countries. However, the fact analysis of works which pursue the path that these
that the Gothic has been embraced by many cul- Dracula adaptations opened and that reflect the
tures that are not Christian in origin negates this fears and desires of Turkish people in the modern
argument. Japanese Gothic or Malaysian Gothic globalized age, will reveal the characteristics of
are only two examples of many. Particularly, the Turkish Gothic much clearly. This kind of study
recent Globalgothic studies prove that the genre is needed not only in Turkish studies but also in
is adaptable and transformable to any culture as Globalgothic studies. At the moment, Turkish
long as the conventions are met. Gothic is invisible in the scope of Globalgothic,
Although adapted before Globalgothic term but its heyday surely is around the corner.
was established, Vlad the Impaler and Dracula
in Istanbul are perfect examples of transcultural
References
Sanders, Julie. Adaptation and Appropriation. Şimşirgil, Ahmet. Osmanli Tarihi Kayi: 2 Cihan
London: Routledge, 2006. Print. Devleti. Istanbul: KTB, 2012. Print.
Scognamillo, Giovanni and Metin Demirhan. Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Oxford: Oxford Univer-
Fantastic Turkish Cinema. Istanbul: Kabalcı, 2005. sity Press, 2011. Print.
Print. “Turk Sinema Tarihine Genel Bir Bakis” Sinema
Scognamillo, Giovanni. “Korkunun Turkcesi”. Genel Mudurlugu. Web. 25 Jul 2013. <http://www.
Turk Edebiyatı’nda Korkunun Yeri, 12 Feb 2008. sinema.gov.tr/ana/sayfa.asp?id=117>.
Web. 13 Aug 2013. <http://www.haber7.com/kul- Yıldız, Osman. “Ali Rıza Seyfi Seyfioğlu”. TUBAR
tur/haber/299607-turk-edebiyatinda-korkunun- 12. (2002): 89-109. Web. 20 Jul 2013. <http://
yeri>. dergipark.ulakbim.gov.tr/tubar/article/view-
Seyfi, Ali Rıza. Drakula Istanbul’da. Istanbul: File/5000072792/5000067016>
Kamer, 1997. Print. Yucesoy, Ozge. “Korku Edebiyati (Gotik Edebi-
Silver, Alain, and James Ursini. The Vampire yat) ve Turk Romanindaki Ornekleri”. Unpublished
Film from Nosferatu to Interview with the Vampire. MA thesis. Istanbul University, 2007.
New York: Proscenium, 1997. Print.
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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Articles
Dating back to 1764 and regarded as the first of the Serbian psychoanalyst Vladeta Jerotić1 and
Gothic novel, Horace Walpole’s masterpiece, The the Russian philosopher Berdyaev2, life-affirm-
Castle of Otranto, has justifiably been visited and ing and life-propagating. Whereas the first part
re-visited by Gothic scholars as a comprehensive, of the paper acknowledges the dark, shadowy as-
intriguing, and multi-layered work of art. Apart pects of the unconscious, the second part is cen-
from offering a storehouse of the future Gothic tered on the failure to recognize the two life-pro-
tropes, the novel has been literally anatomized, pelling archetypes of the unconscious which are,
both structurally and thematically, providing a in Jerotić’s and Berdyaev’s idiom, about divine,
patchwork of different approaches to Walpole’s redemptive creativity. Man, Berdyaev argues, is
Gothic such as cultural, historical, social-histor- made in God’s likeness.
ical and psychological. Naturally, it has entailed My approach, which is psychoanalytical-
an in-depth, ever-broadening and ever-evolv- ly oriented, is aimed at pointing to a life of
ing perspective on the oldest and most authen- near-devastating absurdity and spiritual void
tic piece of the original Gothic genre in Europe. due to the threatening darkness of the personal
Prioritizing the psychological approach in my unconscious, as well to the utter neglect of the
reading of the first Anglo-Saxon Gothic novel in above-mentioned archetypal segments of the
the so-called heyday of this literary genre (1764- collective unconscious. In fact, I attempt to point
1820), this paper is focused on the unconscious out that if these archetypes had been acknowl-
in Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto. How- edged and incorporated into life purposefully, a
ever, it does not only give a perspective on those person might have responded creatively and his
aspects of the psyche which have always been as- or her life could have been less tormenting and
cribed to the dark, negative demarcations such as dramatic. Therefore, what my paper explores are
the deviant, the irrational, the repressed, and the the internal processes of characters inhabiting
tabooed –aspects which have been vastly exploit- Walpole’s Gothic world: the consequences of the
ed in Gothic-related studies and researches. Not externalization and the objectification of the ir-
neglecting the anarchic and subversive aspects of rational and the morbid from Manfred’s personal
the unconscious, the article also revolves around unconscious as well as the consequences of his
the two archetypes homo creator and homo reli- non-recognition of the two life-oriented arche-
giosus; even though they originate from the un- types from his collective unconscious – homo
conscious, these two archetypes are, in the words creator and homo religiosus.
1
Vladeta Jerotić (1924- ) is the famous Serbian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, cultural critic and writer. He is the reputable aca-
demic who is well known for his many books and lectures on a variety of topics: psychiatry, psychoanalysis, religion, culture,
man and his identity etc.
2
Importantly, the famous Russian philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev (1874-1948), whose philosophy is both social and religious,
was well acquainted with Freud’s work and psychoanalysis, too. Not neglecting the fact that Freud’s psychoanalysis must have
affected Berdyaev’s philosophical thought, the Russian philosopher developed his own, very complex approach in the analysis
of the psyche (the unconscious, the conscious and the superconscious) and his religiousness was largely about divine humanity
– the continuing, ever-insightful and still never wholly demystified link between man and God.
Studies in Gothic Fiction
71
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ligious norms. What is exploited at length and dra- verted moral energy are similar to Milton’s Satan,
matized in depth is the dark obsession of Manfred’s while his domestic savagery carries reminders of
narcissistic ego and the darkness of his obsession many of the sexually-driven hero-villains of the
is by no means dissociated from the castle. Rather, Elizabethan and Jacobean blood tragedies, espe-
the psychic, the internal and the dark reside within cially Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a castle tyrant also
the castle walls and the castle becomes emblematic driven by ‘black and deep desires”’ (Frederick
of the dark, irrational psychic processes beside its 21). Compared to the two equally negative char-
other symbolic implications: acters – the Miltonic power-hungry Satan and
The castle is a multivalent symbol; it may be as- the Shakespearean sexually-driven, tyrannous
sociated with the maternal or the sexual body, Macbeth – Walpole’s Manfred is aligned with a
the human psyche, or the patriarchal social or- rich gallery of male characters in literature whose
der. The dark tunnels and underground passag- narcissistic egos are fuelled by the dark, unwar-
es of Gothic edifices represent descent into the rantable desires and motives. Plagued himself, he
unconscious, away from the socially constructed plagues others: Hippolita (through his disrespect
self and toward the uncivilized, the primitive. of the institution of marriage), Isabella (through
Violence, pursuit, and rape occur in these lower his relentless pursuit of the victimized damsel,
depths. (Valdine 7) forcing her to a life of physical and psychological
Indeed, it is in the dark, underground passages isolation) and Theodore (through his imprison-
of the usurped castle of Otranto where Manfred’s ment within the castle walls for helping Isabella
relentless pursuit of Isabella occurs, involving a escape from Manfred’s sexually-driven pursuit).
threat of violence and rape. Symbolically, the un- What Walpole foregrounds is a man driven by
derground area of the castle represents Manfred’s dark, twisted impulses that surface from the un-
unconscious mind in an act of boundary-crossing conscious for the sole purpose of satisfying the
and transgression of both the aesthetical and the ideals self-centeredly and uncritically set forth by
ethical. The most primitive urges burst forth from his ego – to have a male heir and, thus, perpetuate
the hidden depths of Manfred’s mind. It is, there- the reign of his own familial line.
fore, in the unconscious mind itself that we wit- Ultimately, Manfred’s impulsive, unpredict-
ness the de-construction of his socially construed able nature, often driven by the dark uncon-
self and, subsequently, the surfacing of Manfred’s scious, leads him to commit filicide: thinking that
aesthetically and ethically transgressive nature Isabella, not his own daughter Matilda, is secretly
which is beastly, uncivilized, and violent. In other meeting Theodore in the church, Manfred push-
words, it is a descent from Manfred’s conscious es the knife through the curtains and stabs his
into the unconscious mind, which unleashes his daughter to death. In this way, the death scene,
compulsive-obsessive pursuit of the damsel in which is implicit of the transgressions of sorts,
distress, Isabella, in a twilight scene of near rape conveys the unsettling eruption of the darkest
just for the sake of securing a male heir to the impulse of the unconscious, the death impulse.
throne of the castle. To make things even worse, he kills his own
After she escapes from the imprisoning, shad- daughter and it is by no means some divine or
owy walls of the castle, from the lustful pursuit supernatural intervention. Rather, Manfred’s per-
of its lord, and from his darker reality, the vic- sonal and familial tragedy is, ironically, orches-
timized Isabella finds refuge in a nearby church trated by pater familias i.e. Manfred himself and,
where she lives in isolation, both physical and metaphorically, by the hand of the doomed fam-
psychological. Not depicted as god-fearing or re- ily line. Indeed, it is by the end that the destroyer
penting, Manfred persists in his being villainous becomes largely mentally destroyed himself due
and in being “warped by dark passions and twist- to this filicide. Furthermore, with the usurped
ed by dark motives. His lust for power and per- castle being “thrown down with a mighty force”
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(Walpole 239), the castle tyrant finds himself in an is also the repository of some life-affirming arche-
equally ruinous state of mind since he cannot main- types such as homo creator and homo religiosus.
tain the façade of grandeur, magnificence, wealth Berdyaev claims that “The path of creativeness is also
and prosperity. It follows that the destroyer becomes a path to moral and religious perfection, a way of re-
the destroyed, both physically and psychologically: alizing the fullness of life” (132). According to him,
he does not recognize homo creator deeply embed- the two archetypes, homo creator and homo religio-
ded in his collective unconscious, his actions are not sus, seem to be mutually dependent and relational:
creative, procreative, regenerative, redemptive or hu- since a person is made in his or her creator’s likeness,
mane. Conversely, they are destructive in their very it is through his or her creativeness that they best
essence, illustrating the physicalization of his inner exemplify their divine nature i.e. homo religiosus.
darkness i.e. the darkness of his unconscious. Indeed, “Humankind possesses a divine image and
In the end, “Manfred signed his abdication of the is a microcosm as well as a microtheos” (Wood 43)
principality, with the approbation of Hippolita, and and a person, assigned a divine image and described
each took on them the habit of religion” (245). His as a microtheos, is supposed to be a creator in the
retirement into a nearby convent does not, howev- first place. A person’s creativity, which is intrinsical-
er, imply his transformation or translation into a ly divine, is aimed at perfecting not only the physical
god-fearing, religious man. The scene is not implicit world (macrocosm) but also one’s own self (micro-
of a discovery of homo religiosus inscribed deep into cosm): “man as homo creaturam creatus not only is
his collective unconscious. Rather he approaches reli- summoned to create within the matter of this world
gion from the outside. In other words, he approaches but, first of all, constitutes himself in the process of
the church as a building providing him and his wife a his creativity” (Katarzyna 226).
‘home’ rather than as an institution of religion. And yet, Walpole’s protagonist/hero-villain
What has only been glimpsed at in the previous has remained blind to and ignorant of the rich
two paragraphs will be approached with a steady, potential of these two life-affirming archetypes.
insightful gaze in the second part of the paper: the In fact, it is not the path of creativity that Man-
unconscious, almost always synonymous with the fred has chosen; his choice, by contrast, has been
multi-layered excavation and sudden, frequent ir- the path of destruction and death. Not choosing
ruption of anarchic energies, has unjustifiably been the road of moral and religious perfection, Man-
ignorant of the two archetypes of the collective un- fred has failed to realize the fullness or totality
conscious – homo creator and homo religiosus. In of being. Put differently, his life has been a life of
fact, Gothic characters are physically and psycho- estrangement from religion despite the fact that
logically doomed not only because of what might be Friar Jerome, the friar of the nearby Church of St.
defined as the darkness of the unconscious but also Nicholas, has frequently attempted to point to the
because of the characters’ non-recognition of the po- immoral, irreligious nature of Manfred’s designs
tentially enlightening archetypes embedded in the in relation to his saintly wife Hippolita and his
collective unconscious. Thus, Manfred exemplifies ‘contracted’ daughter Isabella:
the triumph of the darkness of the unconscious, the The will of heaven be done!” said the Friar. “I am
inability to control the dark, anarchic drives rising but its worthless instrument. It makes use of my
from the depths of his unconscious and, at the same tongue to tell thee, Prince, of thy unwarrantable
time, the failure to recognize the two archetypes, designs. The injuries of the virtuous Hippolita
homo creator and homo religiosus, and their incor- have mounted to the throne of pity. By me thou
poration into his life. The acknowledgement of both are reprimanded for thy adulterous intention of
archetypes would not have revolutionized the status repudiating her: by me thou art warned not to
of the fallen, flawed, tragic hero like Manfred, but it pursue the incestuous design of thy contracted
might have made their existence more purposeful. daughter … Heaven mocks the short-sighted
In fact, the unconscious, alongside its darker side, views of man. (Walpole 84-85)
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Religion, Walpole highlights, has its warrant- In other words, Manfred has definitely failed
able and unwarrantable designs strictly defined. to free himself from the ancestral curse, has self-
Friar Jerome is, however, only an administrator ishly pursued the interests of his narcissistic ego
of the religious, the moral and the humane in the at all costs, and has, as a result, metamorphosed
physical world. Even though the Friar describes into an utterly destructive as well as self-destruc-
himself as a ‘worthless instrument’ against the tive human being. His metamorphosis could
omnipotence and grandeur of Heaven, he does metaphorically be described as a downward, hap-
have the function of an intermediary between the hazard, or vortex-like process of destruction and
divine and the mundane: he points to the divine self-destruction. Therefore, being in dissonance
path of creativity as opposed to the path of de- with what Berdyaev emphasizes as the key for the
structiveness and makes an attempt at sparking road to meaningful and purposeful life – creativ-
off and enlivening homo religiosus inside Man- ity – Manfred has, metaphorically, bypassed an
fred’s hardened soul. He warns him against the ascending spiral of creativity, possibly resulting
short-sightedness of people in aesthetical, ethical in the temporary transcendence of the co-ordi-
and religious terms and, in this way, discourages nates of one’s own self and in the participation of
the primitive, beastly, perverse impulses of hu- the world as selfless, infinite, and eternal:
man nature. However, Manfred’s narcissistic ego In The Meaning of the Creative Act he argued
remains impervious to the well-meaning remarks that creativity is a form of temporal TRANSCEN-
of the unassuming Friar: in his self-assumed ar- DENCE, a way of liberation from the crushing
rogance, Manfred ignores it all and maintains the absurdity of the universe … Creative expression
image of a patriarch, who is a law onto himself. rises above the finite to the infinite; it is what the
On top of all that, Manfred, disrespectful and ancient Greeks termed an ekstasis, an experience
transgressive of the religious norms, commits a of freedom from the mundane that leads to the
murder inside the church – the building which eternal. (Wood 44)
is the most sacred institution of all. The death of Temporal transcendence is, in Berdyaev’s terms,
his daughter Matilda, mistaken for Isabella by permanently denied to Manfred because he has
Manfred, is a testimony of his mind as debased, ultimately failed to create a connective tissue be-
deranged, disassociated, and estranged from re- tween the collective unconscious and what Berdy-
ligion and its basic premises. In addition, the aev terms as the superconscious which is, subse-
death in the Church witnesses the deadening of quently, conducive to the personal conscious:
the last burning spark of homo religiosus and, Berdyaev’s most perfect model of … creativity,
metaphorically, the extinguishing of the dying involves the redirection of what lay in the lower
embers of homo creator inside Manfred. What is unconscious and may have been tinged with sin,
more, the ancestral curse, running in the family even demonism, upwards in the creative ascent to
for generations, has reached its climactic point in the free superconscious, where it is completely pu-
the scene of Manfred’s sacrilegious murder of his rified in its transformation and then moves back
daughter Matilda in the church – the sins of the into the consciousness where the craft/artisanship
ancestors are visited on their descendants in the part of the actual execution … takes place until a
most shocking way. It, ultimately, leaves Walpo- sense of completion is achieved. (Crone 177)
le’s protagonist, Manfred, in the state of negative Put differently, Manfred’s tragedy is, within
transcendence or non-transcendental state and Berdyaev’s framework of reference, the conse-
what he is faced with is the absurdity of life; it quence of not “turning from the objective world
is the necessary consequence the person has to of actualized being to living meonic freedom”
face, sooner or later, for not acknowledging the (Wood 45) and freedom of creativity, which
two intertwining and saving archetypes: homo could have led to the recovery of the deeply hid-
religiosus and homo creator. den archetypal of the collective unconscious and
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its incorporation in the conscious mind via the beyond his reach: religiousness and creativity are
superconscious. It follows, therefore, that Man- certainly not about rather forceful, self-imposed
fred’s recourse has been away from the creative habits, but more about the spontaneous discovery
as well as from the meonic which is descriptive of the redemptive powers hidden in the collective
of “intradivine reality” (Frederick 144) on the unconscious. In other words, both religiousness
road to the redemptive and liberating spirituality. and creativity are being discovered, improved,
Rather, Manfred has opted for the mundane and and perfected throughout one’s life.
the objective. Most sorrowfully, his life illustrates
a negation of Berdyaev’s belief that “humans Coda
could prepare the way for a new outpouring of All things considered, I hope that I have given a
the spirit that would end spiritual alienation and slightly new reading of the Walpolean story: it is
objectification” (Wood 45). reading from an angle that traces two develop-
Hardly surprisingly, the very last scene in ing narratives – the Gothic narrative and the re-
Walpole’s novel depicts Manfred’s and Hippoli- ligious and sacrilege narrative. The two narrative
ta’s retirement into the convent – with a strong strands are grounded on a shared theme:
emphasis on their taking on religion as a habit.3 The sacrilege narrative is, prior to Gothic fiction,
Not being a believing, praying person through- the only genre to link two topics which were to
out his life, Manfred’s developmental habit of re- become pervasive in that fiction: family curses
ligion seems rather artificial, contrived, and un- and medieval architecture. Walpole’s narrative
natural. Or, to put it more precisely, his recourse utilises both, and in addition explicitly engages
to religion and the convent is more of a kind of with questions of sacrilege … it became rapid-
self-imposed flight from life which has become ly clear that both themes were capable of much
absurd, meaningless, and purposeless. For Man- wider application; the family curse, especially, de-
fred, the convent serves the function of offering veloped a multivalency and wide suggestiveness.
him a sanctuary from the world which he has (Alison 36)
left in ruins. My argument is that Manfred’s re- Refusing to prioritize the importance of one
course is by no means a result of his discovery narrative over the other or to view one narrative
of homo religiosus embedded deep into his col- as secondary to the other, I have shown how the
lective unconscious and a subsequent enactment two narrative strands run parallel to each other:
upon such a discovery. His distorted attitude to the ancestral curse reaches its climactic point
life, irrespective of any norms, has nurtured the in the protagonist’s sacrilegious murder of his
aesthetically and ethically deviant and religious- own daughter inside the church of St. Nicholas.
ly transgressive human nature in Manfred. Being Against the background of unsettling hauntings
out of touch with his innermost self, by nature of the ancestral misdeeds in the form of the spec-
creative and divine, he can never retrieve the tral (“the immense body of Alfonso the Good,
treasure chest of the recuperating archetype. In the walking specter of Ricardo, and the animat-
fact, homo religiosus and homo creator remain ed skeletal monk of Isabella’s oratory”), (Frank
3
Having in mind that the publication of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary or A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) only shortly
preceded the publication of Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), there remains a possibility that Walpole exploits both
senses of the noun ‘habit’ – both as custom and as a form of a dress, a religious habit or clerical clothing; either way, the im-
plication remains the same. If the latter were the case – not an unlikely, improbable one, the word is suggestive of the clerical
dress which was a part of the Catholic devotee’s clothing. Accordingly, Manfred’s conversion into Catholicism is by no means
a genuine, heart-felt transformation resulting from his discovery of homo religiosus. Rather it is merely a disguise, a posture,
and a ruse - a reinstatement of my above-mentioned argument that Manfred’s conversion is feigned and insincere. Interesting-
ly, the scene is also reflective of Walpole’s deeply engrained anti-Catholicism – the crooked, twisted castle tyrant is not only
harboured in the Catholic Church but he is, ironically, also clad in the clerical costume as if for promotion, a reward or recom-
pense. And, in this way, Walpole has tacitly and unpretentiously opened the door for the future anti-Catholic attitude in the
Gothic writing: “Abbeys and convents presided over by monastic tyrants and twisted authority figures are never sanctuaries but
are instead houses of horror and are as frequent as haunted castles or mansions in post-Walpolean Gothic fiction” (Frank 341).
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343) which are suggestive of the ancestral family Gothic scholarship, grounded in psychoanalytic
curse, the narrative traces the doomed Manfred theory, to further engage with this captivating
as an agent of usurpation, torment, victimiza- subject, opening up more possibilities to and
tion, and destruction. The narrative evinces his more insights into the psychology of the literary
irretrievable estrangement not only from homo Gothic. Being itself heavily grounded in psycho-
religiosus but at the same time from homo cre- analysis, the paper points in the direction of a
ator: the final act of the victimizing Manfred is psychoanalytical reading of the Gothic in which
the act of religious transgression and destruction the landscape in ruins should be approached as
of someone of his own blood – the sacrilegious the mindscape in psychological ruins or, even
murder of his daughter. By the end, the victimiz- more pretentiously, the physicalization of the
er becomes self-victimized: it is not the destruc- shattered self. Also, my research paper addresses
tion of the castle of Otranto as much as the death Gothic scholars, who view Walpole’s text from the
of his own daughter through infanticide which psychoanalytical standpoint, to attempt to piece
leaves him in psychological ruins. Finding him- together the bits and pieces of the ruined psyche
self the destroyed and dispossessed castle owner, and, even more significantly, approach them as a
Manfred’s recourse is to withdraw to the nearby patchwork of the long-buried, the repressed, the
convent with his wife Hippolita and take up reli- forbidden and the deviant. These aspects should
gion as a habit – self-imposed religiousness as a unequivocally be attended more seriously and
saving illusion that his microcosm of horrifying more understandingly.
absurdity and spiritual void might be made more Finally, this reading of the Gothic has proved
enduring, tolerable, and sustaining. the significance of delving into the unconscious
Additionally, despite the fact that the uncon- mind, giving us an opportunity to learn more
scious is underexplored and that there is little about the personal and the collective unconscious.
likelihood that it will ever be fully explored, I be- The paper acknowledges the existence of the an-
lieve that I have to a large degree succeeded in archic, dark, and destructive energies in the laby-
shedding some light on the unacknowledged po- rinthine structure of the unconscious ruining the
tentials of the unconscious mind, holding the cre- life of Walpole’s protagonist. But, perhaps more
ative and religious dimensions deeply inscribed importantly, the paper illustrates Manfred’s life
into it. Hopefully, my research has pointed in the as spiritually void and twisted because of the ne-
direction of paramount importance of the rare- glected, unused reservoir of the two life-affirming
ly mentioned segment of the archetypal in the and life-oriented archetypes – homo creator and
unconscious: homo creator and homo religiosus homo religiosus. My psychoanalytically inflected
are the archetypes in the collective unconscious research does not, of course, offer any final word
which should be integrated into the conscious so about the nature of Manfred’s personal or collec-
that they become formative elements in the pro- tive unconscious. Still, I think the research has cer-
cess of a more insightful knowledge of the self. tainly provided a better and more comprehensive
Had they been acknowledged at least tangentially, understanding of Walpole’s protagonist, especially
those archetypes might have eased the plight and his unconscious, and will thus propel deeper in-
suffering of the tormented tormentor – Manfred. sights into the further study of the psychological
Importantly, the paper will perhaps encourage underside of early Gothic writing.
References
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1954. Print. Gothic Horror from The Castle of Otranto to Alien.
New York: SUNY Press, 1999. Print.
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Crone L. Anna. Eros and Religion in Russian Re- Stark, Katarzyna. “The Idea of God-Man in
ligious Renewal: the Philosophers and the Freud- Nicolas Berdyaev’s Existentialism.” The Yearbook
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Frank S. Frederick. Glossary. The Castle of Otran- nomenology and Existentialism in the Twentieth
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ick. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2003. Print. spirations. Ed. Tymieniecka Anna-Teresa. Springer,
Jung, Carl. “The role of the unconscious.” The 2009: 217-231. Print.
Jung Reader. Ed. Tacey David. Routledge, 2012: 61- Walpole, Horace, The Castle of Otranto. Lon-
80. Print. don: Bodoni, 1791. Print.
Shell, Alison, Oral Culture and Catholicism in Wood K. Douglas. “Nicolas Alexandrovich
Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge Berdyaev (1874-1948).” Dictionary of Existentialism.
University Press, 2007. Print. Ed. Gordon Haim. Routledge, 2013: 41-47. Print.
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Articles
The term new geographies may be applied to ous assumption, as the descriptive and emotional
‘fantasies that take place in imaginary, but not qualities conveyed through the precise environ-
necessarily supernatural, worlds’ (Wolfe 80), mental form is inarguably at least equivalent in
wherein the environmental construction is en- potency – as forms the basis for the field of ter-
tirely unique to the text or series. Such settings rapsychology. The world created within Peake’s
are entirely fictional, and are shaped exclusively texts has been the focus of much critical commen-
through the stylistic effects generated through the tary: ‘the castle itself, far more than the characters
semantic connotational power of those features in it or the plot on which the trilogy is hinged,
named in its composition. There are theoretically remains a fine effigy … of the gothic’ (Punter and
no restrictions in such creativity, and completely Byron, 2004: 154-155) and ‘[it is] the place rath-
disparate worlds, whose form could only be real- er than the plot that remains in the mind’ (Win-
ized within unshackled artistic landscapes, allow nington 5). Gardiner-Scott traces Peake’s stylistic
for a creative use of naming to situate the reader development from a dark romanticism to a high-
within an intended stylized framework; as may ly personal form of decadence, but Gormenghast
be observed in exploring the highly-gothic set- is consistently recognized as bearing a highly
ting of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast novels, in gothic sensibility. Names are a core aspect of set-
order to provide a new critical interpretation of ting construction that are directly connected to
the extent to which the names are crafted to serve environmental perception; for literary spaces are
its thematic build. created, defined, and refined entirely through se-
The lands of the eponymous castle that features mantic association.
within the narratives are entirely isolated, with no All worlds encountered within art (no matter
external points of reference against which to plot their degree of fictionality) are open to herme-
inferential states. The names are formed, for the neutic development in any manner of the author’s
most part, entirely from their descriptive compo- choosing, and so every stylistic selection – includ-
nents, and so their semantic implications are one ing the defining onymic forms – works together in
and the same with their structural elements, both tailoring the setting to achieve a desired emotion-
qualifying (e.g. ‘cool –’ or ‘– of roots’) and generic al response. The construction of these fictional
(e.g. ‘– hall’ or ‘room –’). Earlier literary onomas- worlds is necessarily directed by an author towards
tic studies have typically focused primarily on the achieving a desired emotional framework for their
assessment of qualifying elements as opposed to material, which in turns offers a valuable basis for
their generic counterparts, perhaps in the erro- assessing names coined specifically for a work.
neous belief that the level of semantic content These need not conform to any traditionally pre-
possessed is far greater in the former than the lat- scribed rules, beyond serving as a primary referent
ter (the very term ‘generic’ imparting a sense of and communicating some detail that defines a set
standardization, unlike the more freeform nature identifiable point, making their expressive creative
of qualifiers). This is, however, a highly errone- as open as an author may desire.
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of both the extent of the semantic properties lost ‘the Retainer’s Graveyard’ is also rendered distinct
with the descriptive prefix, as well as a compara- from the ‘Graveyard of the Elect Retainers’, so that
tive assessment the persistent terrapsychological levels of servitude may be quantified, and placed
value that may remain with the archetypal suf- accordingly, even after internment. The world is
fix. The emotional and physical sense of barrier entirely situated with Gormenghast at its centre,
remains, but it is the additional intangible sense even onomastically. The only other distinct lands
that is directly shifted with the latter form to a acknowledged within the texts are the ‘Isles of
sense of protection from the terrain being a part Blood and Spices’, the name of which betrays their
of the castle, as opposed to a separate entity out- dangerous association but equally rich bounty that
side of its domain. Likewise, ‘Gormen Moun- is exotic and colorful, qualities not beheld in any
tain’, most prominent of those that tower over the other part of the castle or its immediate lands. Al-
immediate landscape is renamed ‘Gormenghast though this could be read as a poetic formation
Mountain’. Perhaps an editorial inconsistency, derived entirely from symbolic qualities, given
or perhaps merely a shortened form, that feature that there is little ambiguity in the names of any
– which may have loaned its name to the castle other named location as to their purpose within
originally, if traditional external naming patterns the realm, it would be unusual to encounter a sin-
were followed – has in turn been retaken and gle break from the onymic pattern.
reshaped by the removal of that single syllable. The semi-ruined ‘Tower of Flints’ serves as the
Both of the latter names are weighted with a level unofficial central feature of the castle: ‘It was from
of subservience to the castle, reflecting the land- about midway along this attenuated East Wing
scape being brought into the grip of those who that the Tower of Flints arose in a scarred and
would reshape the land to a singular purpose: the lofty sovereignty over all the towers of Gormeng-
service of the castle and all its traditions. Every- hast’ (144), and provides a solid example of both
thing is dictated over – and by – the castle. semantic and terrapsychological implication that
‘Gormenghast Lake’ serves as the final part of may be wrought by a name. The descriptive el-
the immediate environment that features heavily ement of the name instantly implicates a num-
in the ritualistic practices of the castle, but no oth- ber of properties that are suggestively attached
er name is revealed. Everything within the world to the feature. Despite having a minimal physical
is forced into falling in line with the name of Gor- description within the text, the name alone may
menghast, for all that is (in the case of the environ- be identified as directing its form as being a dull
ment) or are (for individuals) encountered within grey in color, cold to the touch and impression,
the text that ‘[the castle] is the world; it has sub- with a broken, jagged appearance. All of these
sumed nature and stands as a hollow mockery of are elements associated with the material of its
the powerless natural realm’ (Punter 2: 122), and construction, and a semantic transference of the
so the surrounding terrain is literally redefined as perceived properties engages with the descriptive
the reader progresses through the text through its elements so as to become symbolically represen-
renaming so as to not overshadow the castle in any tative of that which the name denotes. Associ-
manner. Even a feature of terrain that is not envel- ated qualities, characteristics and the resulting
oped in this may still be identified as repurposed emotional responses to these elements take on a
and renamed accordingly. The ‘Long Sandy Val- definitional root for the denotatum thereby pro-
ley’ is turned into ‘the Valley of Graves’, with the viding a semantic identity wrought through the
original natural characteristic removed in favor of deep meaning of the surface lexical formation.
those that serve the castle. These suggestions as to its being are wrought en-
In addition to this suggestively grand cemetery, tirely through the semantic choice of its name.
two other such places are named within the texts; Given its place as the grandest of all the exten-
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sive array of turrets and buildings, this status is held within, but potentially also metaphorically,
also reflected in the onomastic reduction to ‘The for they were the individuals who stand above all
Tower’. It is the defining construct of that type and watch over all that is.
for Gormenghast, and so provides an influential Peake describes Steerpike’s increasing under-
aesthetic template for all the other physical fea- standing of the composition of Gormenghast as
tures within the castle. The ‘Outer Wall’, as well learning an ‘alphabet of arch and aisle’ (373), a
as serving that role, may be read as emphatic of poetic description equally applicable to terrapsy-
the dividing nature of such constructions, with chology as a whole – which argues that landscape
that representing the ultimate barrier between and features themselves impart an emotional en-
those within and those not. For Keda, an outsid- gagement with every encounter, which may be
er brought into the castle to serve as the young suggested as the poetic force (or genius-loci) that
Titus’ nurse, ‘the face of the outer wall had been must be manipulated in any artistic depiction of
like the symbol of endlessness, of changelessness, such terrain. Stone and masonry feature as the
of austerity and of protection’ (172); a fitting en- dominant external descriptors, for this physical-
capsulation of the terrapsychological value of ity is their prominent readily communicable and
that constructed terrain. lasting form, from which we also find within this
Within the confines of the castle, the ‘Stone series of lanes: ‘the Blackstone Quarter’ and ‘the
Lanes’, or just ‘Lanes’, consist of a labyrinthine Stone Hall’. As literary names may be argued as
series of corridors and tunnels that connect the semantically interpretative in their construction,
various sections of the castle currently occu- which an argument presented throughout this
pied. The area is described in a manner befitting discussion, then these characteristics serve to
its composition: ‘there was no place on earth so form the perceived identity of the site upon the
terrible and so suited to a game of hide and seek qualifying (descriptive non-generic) element.
as this gaunt warren’ (661), with the descriptor The semantic component is tied into the linguis-
‘gaunt’ here supporting the grey, lifeless, and hol- tic elements of their composition, and both the
low qualities suggested by the name. The place generic and qualifier of a name may serve in pro-
element ‘lane’ possesses a number of character- viding powerful implicative connotations that
istically associated elements distinct from sim- underpin the creation of onyms.
ilarly functional terrain types, such as ‘avenue’, It may have been authorial desire for the read-
‘walkway’, or ‘alley’. Although linguistically these er to become quickly disorientated amidst the
terms may be identified as synonymous to a de- mass of otherwise unnamed rooms, corridors
gree, they nevertheless hold very different terra- and areas, reflected in the need for the inhabitants
psychological values, and it is in these effects that and narrator to refer to places by means of their
aesthetic and stylistic couplings enter the inter- physical identity. Although this erratic means of
pretative field. The specific use of ‘lanes’ here may onomastic focus has been criticized, with ‘[the]
be used to emphasize the confined and narrow narrator describes the castle from a remote exte-
nature of the passageways, with the semantic as- rior view, isolating unimportant features’ (Tolley
sociation of such forms providing this addition- 154), this base assertion may be readily coun-
al level of uncommunicated detail. Brady states tered, as no name functions in isolation – instead
that these ‘expressive qualities give meaning to providing a sweeping and consistent semantical-
the environment’ (2003: 74), and this opinion on ly-expressive castlescape. No detail is too minor
the effects of such detailing is supported by other in how it fits into the overall construction of the
critics who advocate the importance of aesthetic setting. In conducting a mental survey of the im-
value (Carroll; Foster; Beller and Leersden). The mediate environment, Steerpike is described as
‘Tower of Towers’ serves as mausoleum for Groan forming ‘a map of the district that surrounds him
Earls, named perhaps literally for the headstones – the empty world, whose anatomy, little by lit-
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tle, he is piecing together, extending, correcting, The referential aspect of onyms allows even
classifying’ (621), in an attempt to uncover and simple, definitively labeled generics, such as: ‘the
understand the surrounding world, and be able Tree’, to serve as a contextually relevant referential
to navigate freely rather than follow blindly – as form within a closed environment. This serves as
befits his character. a means of distinguishment for a specific loca-
Winnington names earlier scenes where Steer- tion, and so may be included as a valid onomas-
pike gains such a viewpoint as ‘the creator’s view’ tic entity. The reader is not made aware of what
(205), but he discusses this concept in terms of makes this particular tree worthy of this level of
theatrical perception, not as a means of further distinctive identity, whether it holds a descriptive
integrating the landscape into the thematic ad- uniqueness or stands alone in an expanse bereft
herence of the narrative. Throughout the texts, of any other trees, but for those who are aware
the characters stumble across long-forgotten ar- of its notable referential situation, the generic
eas of the castle, such as an unnamed veranda, appellative crosses over into use as a proper (at
four distant alleys, an ‘enormous quadrangle as least, situated within the literary setting) name.
secret as it was naked’ (92) seemingly lacking any The identity of these locations is paired with their
immediately distinctive quality with which to re- distinguishing characteristic, and the aesthetic
fer or provide the basis for a suitable description qualities possessed by these assets are then trans-
name. The terrapsychological influence con- ferred through the semantics of the name.
tained the description of these areas may serve So too is the skyline of the castle given unique
to influence the reading of other places that are character through the assignation of names to
specifically named, such as: “He had seen away particular features, and thi category of names is
to his right a dome covered with black moss. He of particular interest as the examples given are
had seen the high façade of a wall that had been taken directly from the rocky terrain of the Chan-
painted in green-and-black checks. It was faded nel Island of Sark. This was where Peake resided
and partly overgrown with clinging weeds and for a period of his life and served as an acknowl-
had cracked from top to bottom in a gigantic saw- edged inspiration for many of his settings, most
toothed curve” (101). Despite this section not notably Mr. Pye. Each of the following is rattled
being named, the language used in the descrip- off as places to hunt for Steerpike upon his fugi-
tion taints the interpretation of the surrounding tive run from the remaining established author-
environment towards a shared aesthetic that in- ity. ‘The Stone Dogshead’, ‘the Angel’s Buttress’,
forms the overall development of the fictional ‘the Coupee’ (otherwise referred to as ‘the High
landscape. It is for this reason that the onomasti- Knife-Edge’, the existing counterpart of which is a
con taken alone may not provide sufficient infor- narrow isthmus that links Little and Greater Sark,
mation for the full aesthetic implications of any the toponymy bearing a possible likeness with-
of the individual entities of which it is composed; in the structure of the castle), ‘the North Head-
highlighting the need for literary onomastic sur- stones’, ‘the Silver Mines’, ‘the Twin Fingers’, ‘the
veys to span a wider area to uncover the full con- Bluff ’, ‘Gory’, and ‘Little Sark’; all feature as dis-
notative implications of any given name. Wheth- tinct parts of the roofscape, and provide a wealth
er this be the full collective onomasticon of a text, of semantic detail to what is earlier described
the wider thematic implications (both within the as a ‘stationary gathering of stone personalities’
singular work and close intertextual neighbors), (96). No knowledge of the inspirational sources,
or even external non-literary associative social for their placement is a stylistic derivative rath-
ramifications, every name is a complex network er than direct crossover, but these names reflect
of connotation, that together build a setting with a carefully shaped aesthetic build. The aesthetic
an emotional engagement unique for each and qualities wrought by these lexical components to-
every text. gether prove a representative and consistent slice
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of the impressionistic properties carved by man as to its form. It may be assumed that the oth-
that are attributable to the castle as a whole. er areas classed as belonging to a distinct class of
Internal locations appear to be defined through workers, such as ‘the Servants Quadrangle’, fol-
some physical quality of their present situation, low a similar pattern of acting as distinct hubs
in three distinct patterns. Be it from their ap- within the wider operation of the castle, but the
pearance, as may be seen with areas such as ‘the academic section is the only such area explored
Accacia Avenue’, ‘the Attic Arches’ and ‘the Oc- in greater detail within the texts.
tagonal Room’, their forms acutely summarized, Every other named interior location encoun-
for that is their most unchanging feature. The tered in the castlescape follows a strictly descriptive
second quality may be seen with their physical onomastic pattern: ‘the Hall of Bright Carvings’, ‘the
placement in relation to the currently active part Lichen Fort’ (a place of solitary confinement), ‘the
of the sprawling castle, seen with names such as Corridor of Statues’, ‘the Room of Roots’, ‘the Cool
‘the Western Wing’, ‘the Southern Wing’, and ‘the Room’, ‘the Chequered Stairway’, ‘the Twelve Blue
Central Hall’. The final branch of economic on- Attics’, and ‘the Leather Room’, the latter named for
omastic identification is through their current the giant chair which is traditionally the seat of the
inhabitants, as with ‘the Doctor’s Quadrangle’, Headmaster of the school within Gormenghast.
‘the Twin’s Domain’ comprised of an area granted Coates (40) argues that ‘acts of bestowal place the
them in order that they feel as though they still prototypical proper names in the onomasticon di-
hold a semblance of power, and ‘the Cat Room’, rectly’, yet all of these tokens serve as proper nouns
designated as home for the myriad of pets under within the context of this fiction. These locations
the protection of Countess Groan. The Doctor’s are identified through their characteristics, serving
Quadrangle holds a degree of ambiguity in this as both descriptor and reference, reaffirming the
regard, as that area could serve as the traditional need to adopt description names as the most suit-
domain of such a servant. Whether these areas ed means of classifying these onomastic entities.
would permanently retain these identities is not With the adoption of these entities as valid names
explored in the texts, but following the inherent from a prototypical origin, a further stylistic point
thematic trait of following tradition – even when seeks address: whether the qualifier of ‘the’ should
sense of meaning and purpose is lost – suggest be included within their form. As these loca-
this as a likely development. tions have transitioned to linguistically functional
Another section of the castle is termed ‘the proper nouns within the confines of this fictional
Professorial Quarters’, serving as dedicated do- realm, it may be further argued that the determin-
main of the teachers, where they both reside and er is similarly carried over as part of the descrip-
fulfill their academic duties. This is the area to tor element, for there are only single instances of
which they are consigned, by dint of the tradi- such places. They are specific description-names,
tions held in their profession, rather than choice. distinguished from appellative labels, and so the
Within this closed area, through which a barrier determiner similarly crosses over as part of the
of ‘the Great Turnstile’ must be passed, is found full proper name, which correspond with Millar’s
a number of halls. The ‘Central Hall’, ‘the Profes- argument that a specific referent for an otherwise
sor’s Common-Room’, ‘the Master’s Hall’ and ‘the generic concept allows for such entities to be treat-
Long Hall’, the latter of which serves as their place ed as a name in this context.
of dining. From the Central Hall is accessed the The highlighting (or not) of the determiner
‘numerous classrooms of Gormenghast, each one within this study should be seen as neither ran-
with its unique character’ (448), which despite dom nor inconsistent, but instead acknowledging
not being directly named, follows the same fea- the interpretative implication that such an addi-
ture-set notion of identity that may be seen in the tion may make, and serves as a part of the full
other placenames of the castle, with no ambiguity onymic identification. ‘The Great Kitchen’ may
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thus may be so named for the grandiose scale headed by the Groans, otherwise referred to as:
which is a stated requirement to meet the signif- ‘The Family’ (with the determiner again provid-
icant demands of the castle, but it may also serve ing grammatical emphasis and distinction from
as a potential indicator that there are other kitch- all other such units). The ‘Castles’ are those who
ens, but that this one overseen by the head chief reside, serve and otherwise have a function within
Swelter serves to mark it as the primary such lo- the walls of Gormenghast, where every position is
cation. The reader is not informed of any other carefully dictated and cast according to the tradi-
kitchen, and may only assess the merit of such a tions dictated by the Documents. ‘The Dwellers’,
descriptor with the details provided. In contrast, however, are those who exist outside of the bound-
‘the Library’ that serves as Lord Sepulchrave’s aries of the castle, identified only as a group until
personal retreat – made distinct by the assigned it is necessary that one individual be plucked from
determiner that marks the primacy of the loca- their ranks to serve within. ‘The Mud Dwellings’
tion within the subset of similar areas – which is serves as the meagre home of those outside the cas-
differentiated from ‘the Central Library’. Distinct tle walls, acknowledged only in their barest form.
from both of these repositories of knowledge is The base composition of these huts, as with their so-
the ‘Room of Documents’, which holds all of the cial placement, runs directly counter to that of the
details of ritual that binds the castle to its past. castle, and although there is little to distinguish the
These volumes are lexically distinguished from lanes in this settlement, one area is given a unique
other bound works, so that this increased status name. ‘The Square of the Black Rider’, where only
is readily apparent in the name of the room in the most revered of the populace were allowed to
which they are held. Even temporary construc- settle, named for a carving from hundreds of years
tions follow this pattern of naming, with the previous, the only one to escape the fate of being
‘Floor of Boats’ serving as the central flotilla upon burned (and a direct breach of tradition, which
the flooding of Gormenghast. This name may be stood in its centre. The ‘Bright Carvers’ serve as
identified as serving a seamless integration of the this distinctly named group, a stark contrast to the
ramshackle development into an extended part of symbolic home of their most venerated members.
the castle, which again follows the typical naming All of the names assigned to these social groups
convention seen throughout. correspond to their purpose concerning the cas-
‘The Room of Spiders’ is named as the result tle, reiterating the place as the centre of the entire
of neglect spanning decades, with the forgotten fictional world, not just the texts. There is Gor-
room reclaimed from the activities of man by menghast and its surrounding environment, and
time, dust, and hundreds of arachnids. These nothing else; resulting in the definition of all that
properties weave the suggestive semantic and is within the setting being necessarily tied into the
aesthetic elements together by way of it being a notion of the castle as being central to the world.
name – the reference for the location. ‘The Life- And inside of this setting, the social structure con-
less Halls’ as a named area similarly display an tains no ambiguity, reflecting the philosophic de-
extensive array of sections that have long been mands that are central to the maintaining the end-
abandoned. They have no function within the less and unchanging cycle of tradition.
castle, and so all that they may have once been – Emphasis throughout the onomastic structure
their identity – forgotten. That the adjective ‘life- of Gormenghast is on boundaries, and with this is
less’ was the chosen descriptor imparts an emo- found categorization and segregation. All is con-
tional inference of death, entirely in keeping with tained, or trapped, within the crumbling walls,
the gothic sensibilities seen with the thematically just as the castle itself is trapped within its sur-
influenced lexis that is incorporated into many of rounding terrain: “Those tracts of country that
the individual names. stretch on every hand, in the north to the waste-
A rigid hierarchy is present within the setting, lands in the south to the grey salt marshes, in the
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85
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east to the quicksands and the tideless sea, and in for utilizing islands, both literal and in metaphor,
the west to knuckles of endless rock” (221). further noting that throughout his works ‘there is
This emotional register serves as the terrapsy- nothing fortuitous about the characteristic shape of
chological basis for the narrative, as it is matched [his] islands across both text and image; he always
by the aesthetic composition of the fictional castle, drew them with a central monolith of rock’ (64).
and consequentially the names attached must also Gormenghast encapsulates this concept from the
be assessed according to this stylistic base. Empha- outset, set within ‘a sea of nettles’ (7), consisting of
sis within the castle is focused around the unyield- ‘crags and stark walls of cliff (95); this representa-
ing stone of its composition, carved and placed by tion is steeped in adjectives that provide a pervasive
man, as a means of forming a barrier against the atmosphere filled with gothic sentiment. The heavy
wilderness and unpredictability of nature – that use of descriptors is similar to the adjective-laden
this is crumbling in every description outside of style of Lovecraft, where contextual metaphors pro-
the onymic reference highlights the use of names vide thematic flavor for the placenames encoun-
to reference not only what is, but what could (or tered (Butler 2014), directing the reader towards a
should, in the naming authority’s perspective – of desired interpretive sentiment.
which the author themselves provides an addi- Gormenghast provides a unique landscape
tional level of influence) be. Everything is named that possesses no knowable parallel, and so its
for a reason, and determining potential authorial semantic development is dependent upon the in-
motivation for bestowing particular onyms is the dividual descriptive semantic elements that form
quintessential art of literary onomastics, allowing an overarching stylistic framework. The names
for a high degree of critical interpretation against utilized by Peake are carefully crafted to be en-
the wider thematic backdrop. tirely descriptive of their pertinent properties, be
As with any fictional creation, ‘what readers it physical appearance or currently held purpose
“see” in Peake’s descriptions they create in their own – although the latter is a seeming contrast with
minds from language’, but with Gormenghast espe- the thematic domination of tradition, purpose
cially – as an entirely fictional new geography – such and strictly defined place, in practice these traits
descriptions have been argued as relating ‘more to do not provide an effective means of reference.
sensation than to sight’ (Winnington 25). Although The rituals are conducted blindly, possessing pur-
this same sentiment serves as the central premise to pose yet no reason or identity other than having
the entire concept of terrapsychological implication, always been so, but the named locations of Gor-
Peake’s detailed descriptiveness of the environment menghast are functionally-comprised by necessi-
emphasizes the hermeneutic and terrapsychological ty – to direct both internal character and external
association of the spaces encountered and makes reader, albeit in very different manners.
their gothic nature all the more prominent. The This article has demonstrated that identity and
environment experienced is governed as much by form are woven together in onomastic construc-
the rooms, halls, crumbling towers, and courtyards tions, serving to evoke an emotional response in
in the generic elements of the names, as it is by the the reader, which is of particular note within Peake’s
dominant and stylized specifics. Even general de- castlescape, in addition to highlighting the extent to
scriptions draw upon such allusions, with examples which names integrate into the wider thematic fo-
of including: ‘Great halls are his dim playgrounds, cus of the novels. No prior research has made note
his fields are stone, his trees pillars’ (373) ‘a mist of of this constructive relationship. Names poetically
masonry’ (96), ‘a promontory of dank stone’ (402), furnish a fictional landscape with connotatively-in-
and ‘cold stone desert (261) providing a tiny smat- formed and emotional-tuning responses that can-
tering of examples. not be ignored by the reader, nor neglected by the
Winnington comments on Peake’s penchant author, providing a significant feature in directing
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engagement with the narrative. Such is the defin- menghast presents a powerful exemplar of the ex-
itive power that names – as referential entities and tent to which they are an essential part of the setting,
primary means of encountering places and people deeply interwoven with the semantic construction,
within literature – hold. The world of Peake’s Gor- narrative premise, and thematic overtone.
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and Art Criticism 56 (1998), 127–137. Print. Lang, 1999. 153-166. Print.
Gardiner-Scott, Tanya J. Mervyn Peake: The Winnington, G. Peter. The Voice of the Heart:
Evolution of a Dark Romantic. New York, N.Y.: Pe- The Working of Mervyn Peake’s Imagination. Liv-
ter Langham. 1989. Print. erpool: Liverpool University Press. 2006. Print.
Gerus-Tarnawecky, Iraida. “Literary Onomas- Wolfe, Gary K. Critical Terms for Science Fiction
tics”. Names 16 (1968), 312–324. Print. and Fantasy: A Glossary and Guide to Scholarship.
Millar, Robert M. “Why is Lebanon Called the London and New York, NY: Greenwood Press.
Lebanon?: Some Suggestions for the Grammatical 1986. Print.
and Sociopolitical Reasonings Behind the Use or
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Print.
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Book Reviews
Francesca Saggini provides important and over- sumption and creative (re)production of objects /
looked aspects of both the Gothic novel and Goth- texts enacted by author(s) and audiences” (p. 1).
ic drama in her monograph, The Gothic Novel and This lively network and re-circulation of theatre
the Stage: Romantic Appropriations. As outlined techniques, novel-writing, and dissemination is
in the introduction, for too long Gothic drama focused upon to support the relationship between
has held a subsidiary seat in theatre and Gothic Gothic novels and plays. For instance, in setting
fields, particularly when compared to the Gothic up some of her later discussion on the performa-
novel’s dominance in literary criticism. Key works tive elements in Matthew G. Lewis’s The Monk: A
on Gothic drama have contributed to the scholarly Romance (1796), the crossovers between the stage
debate over the past few decades, but it is still an and Gothic novel’s page are illustrated by how pan-
under-studied and under-researched genre. Thus, tomimic and spectacular techniques were “assimi-
as she asserts in the introduction, her study “wish- lated” into the novel. Indeed, she makes the cogent
es to unshackle the Romantic Gothic from the text- point that contemporary readers and audiences
based tyranny which many critical appreciations were likely to have been more alert and receptive
have forced upon it” (p. 22). By guiding the reader to the shared practices between the page and stage
through the history and development of Gothic – thus, we need to take a step back, in order to re-
drama in the early sections of the book, Saggini ef- view and sufficiently understand the interactions
fectively sets the scene of the genre’s background, carried out by novelists and playwrights, and to
before convincingly putting forward her argument acknowledge the fundamental dynamics of appro-
that through a cultural network of stage theatricals priation which took place in the closing decades
and novel-writing, Gothic dramas inspired Gothic of the eighteenth century. The methodology also
novelists. The network also uncovers evidence that incorporates semiotics theory, as dramaturgical
the Gothic novel influenced the composition and language is identified as embedded within sections
staging of Gothic plays. These multiple and inter- of Gothic novels. Tables are provided intermittent-
active appropriations exchanged between novelists ly to further illustrate and validate the findings,
and playwrights are neatly presented in formulaic as readers can trace and view the comparative
chapters, with further sub-sections breaking the analyses which Saggini presents. The empirical
material down, to clearly illustrate the discourses. approach for illustrating the striking similarities
Part I provides the essential background on between texts and plays may appear at first glance
the staging, technology, and reception of Gothic quite complex, yet the semantic and chronological
dramas in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth data is clearly presented, with key phrases high-
centuries. We are also introduced to the method- lighted to assert the findings’ relevance, which
ological framework which is implemented to sup- guides the reader through the arguments.
port the claims throughout the monograph. For An array of Gothic writers is drawn upon to
example, Saggini clearly defines her deployment explore the “cultural appropriations” between
of “appropriation” as “the multiple process of con- plays and novels, with Ann Radcliffe and Lew-
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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is taking the main roles in the primary analy- teenth-century theatre for casting light on actors’
ses. The discussion on Gothic plays’ contextual expressions, to heighten their emotions (p. 190).
backdrops, and the parallels to Gothic novelists’ In addition, Ambrosio’s use of Matilda’s enchanted
activity in the same respective eras is developed myrtle branch, which he uses to trespass Antonia’s
upon in Part Two. By examining the hypotexts abode, bears a strong resemblance to a harlequin’s
(source texts) and hypertexts (afterlives of the magic wand, as it gave the illusion of moving stage
source texts) within the theatre culture of the late props and scenery in order to (usually) rescue the
eighteenth century, Saggini identifies similari- heroine. When on the Gothic novel’s page however,
ties in staging techniques with narrative details this instrument for benevolence is darkly subvert-
in Gothic novels. The transmissions between the ed (pp. 193-4). Moreover, the penultimate section
intertheatrical and infratheatrical dynamics (in- of the book also addresses the relationship between
ternal theatre mechanics and external commu- Gothic drama and the Gothic chapbook (also
nications, respectively) also suggest further pos- known as bluebooks, due to the tendency to bind
sible sources of influence between novelists and them with blue covers). By comparing the publica-
playwrights. This hub of theatrical activity, in the tion of these works (within the timeframe of 1785-
moment when Radcliffe and Lewis penned their 1826) with the activities in theatres at the time of
canonical Gothic novels, highlights the interac- circulation, it is demonstrated that either shortly or
tive influences circulated between the theatre and relatively long after the stagings, plays were revised
literary texts. Along with drawing upon playbills and published in chapbooks, with similar titles. The
and contemporary reviews to demonstrate the printing of chapbooks based upon plays therefore
influences between the Gothic page and stage, illustrates a further means of dissemination, and
writers’ biographical details expand on the appro- shows that along with cheap editions of play col-
priations. For example, Radcliffe often visited the lections, the reworking into chapbooks (as Saggini
theatre, and her husband possibly wrote theatre notes how plots could radically change from stage
reviews for the Gazetteer, which exhibits a further to page) exhibits a further avenue of consumerism
parallel between the writing of Gothic novels and in the theatre world’s trade, as revenue was derived
the stage (p. 101). In addition, the crossovers be- from platforms beyond the sale of theatre tickets.
tween hypo- and hypertexts helped to challenge The focus on Gothic redactions and afterlives
boundaries of “high” and “low” entertainment, as incorporates further influences in Romantic writ-
the “highbrow” readership of novels became in- ing and stage production. For example, the shifting
terwoven, in the “cultural appropriation” process, trends in scenery painting correspond with develop-
with Gothic plays. The shared elements also car- ments in Gothic plays’ mise en scène, and overlaps
ried neo-classical and Shakespearean references between painting styles and landscape descriptions
from Gothic novels to the Gothic drama, which in Gothic novels are also outlined. The consum-
was often seen as a genre targeted at lower-class erism of Gothic drama also sees a recirculation of
audiences (pp. 105-7). stage mechanics; for instance, song books from
I particularly enjoyed the exploration of Lew- plays became increasingly available for sale, which
is’s appropriations of stage techniques in his nov- expanded the cultural network of stage dynamics
el-writing, which are discussed in Part III. Saggini on the page and stage. In addition, the continuation
uncovers some remarkable similarities between the of the “Bleeding Nun” subplot beyond The Monk
ways in which characters and settings are described in further texts and plays particularly exemplifies
in The Monk with stage mechanics. For instance, a the interactive hub of influences between Gothic
passage in the novel indicates an intense focus on texts and theatre. On the note of this large mixture
light shining directly upon faces, to accentuate fa- of various Gothic texts, Saggini neatly collates the
cial gesture. This attention to light parallels with the necessary breadth of the primary sources, and also
regular stage directions in place during the late eigh- effectively handles the difficulties in the availability
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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Volume 4 Issue 1/2. 2015 ©
of primary material from the long nineteenth-cen- ers for the reader, and the interwoven strands
tury theatre. The problems which can cause issues of Saggini’s discourse perhaps simply encapsu-
for theatre historians and literary critics – such as late the energetic crossovers at the heart of her
the reliability of provenances, locating the required discussion. Indeed, after the breadth and depth
version of a text (as many were numerously revised of the study, the monograph ends on a slightly
and reprinted), lack of reviews, costume and stage abrupt note. The jolting feeling is, though, merely
details – can sometimes raise a frustrating obstacle the unavoidable consequence of the fact that Sag-
in theatre criticism. Yet, by selectively focusing on gini’s book has set up a solid premise for further
manuscripts from certain collections, reviews, and work on the topic. For instance, more analyses of
playbills, Saggini efficiently draws together available the appropriations, further elucidated separation
sources to support her claims. of different theatrical entertainments (as various
By the conclusion of the book, it may initial- forms such as harlequin shows, pantomimes and
ly appear that the two perspectives on page to spectacles are focused on), and perhaps a closer
stage, and stage to page appropriations, become examination of other influencing factors (such
merged together, as the tracing of the develop- as French and German literature, which were of
ments is somewhat obscured by the wealth of course germane to the British Gothic), will offer
material. However, the numerous sections are ways to build upon the fascinating discussion in
delineated with clear outlining titles as remind- The Gothic Novel and the Stage.
Studies in Gothic Fiction
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Notes on Contributors
Cameron Dodworth Tugce Bicakci
[email protected] [email protected]
Cameron Dodworth is an Assistant Professor of English Tugce Bicakci is a PhD candidate in the Department of En-
at Methodist University. Cameron received an M.A. and glish and Creative Writing at Lancaster University, where
Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Nine- she previously completed her MA in Contemporary Liter-
teenth-Century Studies, and an M.A. in Victorian Stud- ary Studies. Her research relates to globalgothic studies and
ies from the University of Leicester. Cameron’s research focuses on Turkish Gothic narratives with respect to their
interests include Gothicism, nineteenth-century art and representation of national identity and trauma.
literature, adaptation studies, and food studies.
Bratislav Milošević
Gillian Nelson Bauer [email protected]
[email protected] Bratislav Milošević is an English language teacher at the
Gillian Nelson Bauer is an Instructor of English at the Aleksinac grammar school. He is currently pursuing the
University of Illinois at Springfield. She holds a Ph.D. in magisterial thesis Themes and Motifs in the Postcolonial
English from Loyola University Chicago, and an M.A. in Gothic Fiction of Elizabeth Jolley at the University of Niš,
Literature from Northwestern University. Her research Serbia. He has published research articles in his country
interests include gothic fiction, American realism and and abroad. His primary research interest includes the
naturalism, and class studies. Dr. Bauer’s work on goth- relationship between the Gothic fiction and psychology.
ic fiction has been published in Victorian Network and
The Treatment of Disabled Persons in Medieval Europe James Butler
(Edwin Mellen, 2011). [email protected]
James Butler is a research affiliate at the University of
Daniel Southward Glasgow, interested in exploring techniques of setting
[email protected] immersion and imaginative geographies. He was given a
Daniel Southward is a PhD researcher and creative writ- copy of Titus Groan by a secondary school English teach-
er at the University of Sheffield. His academic work fo- er, believing it “might be of interest for future studies.”
cuses on ideas of contemporary Gothic, Metamodern-
ism, and metafiction, with prose writing to reflect these
interests. His work has been published in the inaugural
issue of the Dark Arts Journal and his current research
explores the implications of post-postmodern experi-
mentation within the genre.
Interested in
studying the
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