Subversion and Convention in Gothic Literature

Abstract

This dissertation aims to exemine major conventions and subversive strategies operating in Ghotic literature. As such, the Gothic appeared in the eighteenth century and yet, it has consistently evolved and its conventions permeate a vast number of fictional works and other aesthetic products since then. The Gothic is often characterized by the creation of suspense and fear, horror and terror, which seems to either represent or warn against the main anxieties of a particular historical period, ranging from political conflicts in Europe, shifts in gender roles, and scientific discoveries during the Enlightenment and the Regency, to name just a few, a fact that defines the Ghotic as a historically-situated narrative. To serve this purpose, this dissertation will be informed by several critical works on the Gothic, as is the case of Fred Botting's Gothic (1995), which addresses gothic convetions from the genre's inception with Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto (1764) as well as its most relevant transformation in later centuries, as is the case of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). First this dissertation will provide an insight into the main features of the Ghotic genre, as well as a brief chronology. Most importantly, this dissertation will also focus on some prominent Gothic works, paying special attention to Gothic strategies such as transgression, power relations, gender roles, the sublime and the thrill of awe-inspiring passions and threats, the rational, and the fantastic.