Demons of the Body and Mind: Essays on Disability in Gothic Literature

245 Pages·2010·1.01 MB·English

by  Ruth Bienstock Anolik

Demons of the
Body and Mind
ALSO OF INTEREST
Horrifying Sex: Essays on Sexual
Difference in Gothic Literature
(edited by Ruth Bienstock Anolik; McFarland, 2007)
The Gothic Other: Racial and Social Constructions
in the Literary Imagination (edited by Ruth Bienstock Anolik
and Douglas L. Howard; McFarland, 2004)
Demons of the
Body and Mind
Essays on Disability in
Gothic Literature
Edited by
RUTH BIENSTOCK ANOLIK
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Demons of the body and mind : essays on disability in
gothic literature / edited by Ruth Bienstock Anolik.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-3322-3
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. Gothic fiction (Literary genre), English—History and
criticism. 2. Horror tales, English—History and
criticism. 3. People with disabilities in literature.
4. Mental illness in literature. 5. Mind and body in
literature. I. Anolik, Ruth Bienstock, 1952–
PR830.T3D46 2010
823'.0829093527—dc22 2010013309
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2010 Ruth Bienstock Anolik. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover images 2010 Shutterstock
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To my dear friends Cecily and
Warren Carel, lights in my darkness.
To my life-long friend Dorene Hirsch,
the only possible substitute for June.
To Bob, anti–Gothic exemplar:
good husband and benevolent physician.
With much love.
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Acknowledgments
I extend well-deserved gratitude to the patient contributors
to this collection whose essays reflect an impressively wide range
of scholarship. As always I am grateful to my wonderful children,
Jonathan, Rachel and Sarah, for the inspiration they provide; I
am glad that they have found alternative sources of nutrition since
the publication of the first collection. I continue to be in debt to
my great friends and erstwhile colleagues Vince Hausmann, Bill
di Canzio and Kate Henry for their brilliant ideas and insight, and
for allowing me to laugh at the absurdities of the world we inhabit.
I am also constantly thankful for a wonderful group of friends
whose support and love keep me grounded and keep me laugh-
ing: Gwen Borowsky and David Camp; Eric and Esmé Faerber;
Debby and Joe Foster; Carol Gantman; Gerry and Lila Margolis;
Carole and Dan Monahan; Barbie Zelizer; Fred Baurer; Carol
Bernstein, for her lasting influence, and especially, Sharon Pollak,
for her kind understanding of the exigencies of proof-reading.
vii
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Diagnosing Demons: Creating and Disabling the
Discourse of Difference in the Gothic Text
RUTH BIENSTOCK ANOLIK 1
PART I: MONSTROUS DEFORMITY:
THE HORRIFYING SPECTACLE OF DIFFERENCE
A Space, a Place: Visions of a Disabled Community in
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and The Last Man
PAUL MARCHBANKS 21
“Colossal Vices” and “Terrible Deformities” in George Lippard’s
Gothic Nightmare
CYNTHIA HALL 35
Ominous Signs or False Clues? Difference and Deformity in Wilkie
Collins’s Sensation Novels
TAMARA S. WAGNER 47
The Dangerous Mr. Casaubon: Gothic Husband and Gothic
Monster in Middlemarch
ELIZABETH HALE 61
Folk Medicine, Cunning-Men and Superstition in Thomas
Hardy’s “The Withered Arm”
SIMON J. WHITE 68
Lucas Malet’s Subversive Late-Gothic: Humanizing the Monster
in The History of Sir Richard Calmady
CATHERINE DELYFER 80
ix