Art of Darkness: A Poetics of Gothic

325 Pages·6.22 MB·English

by  Williams, Anne

Art ofDaric
nedd

ART OF
A PoeticJ of Gothic
ANNE
WILLIAMS
The UniversityofChicago Press
ChuagoandLondon
TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Chicago60637
TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Ltd.,London
©1995byTheUniversityofChicago
Allrightsreserved.Published1995
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 234 5
ISBN:0-226-89906-3 (cloth)
ISBN:0-226-89907-1 (paper)
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Williams,Anne, 1947-
Artofdarkness:apoeticsofgothic/ AnneWilliams.
p. em.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Englishliterature-18thcentury-Historyandcriticism
-Theory,etc. 2.Englishliterature-19thcentury-Historyand
criticism-Theory,etc. 3.Horrortales,English-Historyand
criticism-Theory,etc. 4.Gothicrevival(Literature)-Great
Britain. 5.Romanticism-GreatBritain. 6. Poetics. 1.Title.
PR448.G6W55 1995
823'.0872909-dc20 94-30949
elP
ChapterTen,"WhyAreVampiresAfraidofGarlic?,"originally
appearedunderthetitleof"Dracula:SignsoftheFathers"in
TexasStudiesinLiteratureandLanguage33,no.4(December
1991):445-63.ChapterSixteenoriginallyappearedas"An'I'
foranEye: 'SpectralPersecution'in TheRimeoftheAncient
Mariner,"PMLA(October1993): 1114-27.
8 ThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimulTI
requirementsoftheAmericanNationalStandardforInforma
tionSciences-PermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibraryMate
rials,ANSIZ39.48-1992.
ToMyFirstFamily:
C.B., GARY, AND CHARLES

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
INTRODUCTION
Gothic Fiction's Family Romances
I
~PartOne~
RidingNightmares; or, What's Novelabout Gothic?
ONE
The Nightmare ofHistory
ActingOnandActingOut
27
TWO
The House ofBluebeard
GothicEngineering
38
THREE
Pope as Gothic "Novelist"
ELoMatoAbelard
49
FOUR
Symbolizationand Its Discontents
66
Contentd
FIVE
The Nature ofGothic
80
SIX
FamilyPlots
87
~PartTwo~
ReadingNightmereJj or, TheTwo GothicTraditions
SEVEN
Nightmere's Milk
TheMaleandFelnaleFormulM
99
EIGHT
Male Gothic
Si(g)nJ0/theFatherd
108
NINE
Demon Lovers
TheMonk
115
TEN
WhyAreVampiresMraid ofGarlic?
Dracula
121
ELEVEN
The Female PlotofGothic Fiction
135
TWELVE
The Male as "Other"
141
VIII
COlllelllcJ
THIRTEEN
The FictionofFeminine Desires
NollheMirrorbilltheLalllp
149
FOURTEEN
The Eighteenth-CenturyPsyche
TheMycJteriecJ0/lJdolpho
159
~PartThree~
Writingin Gothic; or, Changingthe Subject
FIFTEEN
Dispelling the Name ofthe Father
175
SIXTEEN
An "I" for an Eye
TheRillle0/theAncientMariner
182
SEVENTEEN
"Frostat Midnight"
(M)olhercJandOtherStrangercJ
200
EIGHTEEN
Keats and the Names ofthe Mother
208
EPILOGUE
The Mysteries ofEnlightenment; or, Dr. Freud's Gothic Novel
239
APPENDIX A
Innerand Outer Spaces
TheAlien Trilogy
249
IX