Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Wallace, Miriam
Area of Concentration
English
Abstract
Gothic literature often relies on space as abstraction, projected “psychic landscapes” in which the intentions of the characters resonate with a setting that responds to their intimate desires and fears. In doing so, the Gothic created cultural touchstones that are still effective today. This thesis examines the forests within four Gothic novels, arguing that when a non-human space is figured as supernatural, or as an “other”, it engenders conflict around the false assumption that humans are discrete subjects. The forest becomes villainous; it may serve a master; it may threaten us; it may surround us and encroach upon us; it may fail to protect us. In order to reconcile British and American anxieties with the dangers of the wilderness, Gothic novels conclude that forests must be cultivated, or tamed, in order to maintain a productive relationship between the natural world and civilized (cultural) world. This established a set of concepts, signified by the sign of the forest, which informs contemporary genre fiction to this day. The sensationalism of the non-human within fiction has shaped ecological awareness through the precepts of Gothic ecology.
Recommended Citation
Schaffer Vignati, C. J., "Cultivating the Cultural Object: An Ecocritical Examination of Gothic Forests from Radcliffe and Brown to Le Fanu and Stoker" (2019). Theses & ETDs. 5796.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5796