
Gothic (Re)Visions
Writing Women as Readers
Susan Wolstenholme(Author)
State University of New York Press
Published on 8. December 1992
Book
Paperback/Softback
218 pages
978-0-7914-1220-6 (ISBN)
Description
Gothic fiction usually has been perceived as the special province of women, an attraction often attributed to a thematics of woman-identified issues such as female sexuality, marriage, and childbirth. But why these issues? What is specifically "female" about "Gothic?" This book argues that Gothic modes provide women who write with special means to negotiate their way through their double status as women and as writers, and to subvert the power relationships that hinder women writers.
Current theories of "gendered" observation complicate the idea that Gothic-marked fiction relies on composed, individual scenes and visual metaphors for its effect. The texts studied here-by Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot, and Edith Wharton-explode the authority of a unitary, centralized narrative gaze and establish instead a diffuse, multi-angled textual position for "woman." Gothic moments in these novels create a textualized space for the voice of a "woman writer," as well as inviting the response of a "woman reader."
Current theories of "gendered" observation complicate the idea that Gothic-marked fiction relies on composed, individual scenes and visual metaphors for its effect. The texts studied here-by Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot, and Edith Wharton-explode the authority of a unitary, centralized narrative gaze and establish instead a diffuse, multi-angled textual position for "woman." Gothic moments in these novels create a textualized space for the voice of a "woman writer," as well as inviting the response of a "woman reader."
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Total Illustrations: 0
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
227 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-1220-6 (9780791412206)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Susan Wolstenholme is Professor of English at Cayuga Community College in Auburn, NY.
Content
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I: WHAT'S FEMALE ABOUT GOTHIC?
1. Dreams and Visions
2. Woman as Gothic Visions (The Italian)
3. The Woman on the Bed (Frankenstein)
4. Charlotte Bronte's Post-Gothic Gothic
PART II: GOTHIC UNDONE
5. Eva's Curl (Uncle Tom's Cabin)
6. Exorcising the Mother (Daniel Deronda)
7. Tableau Mort (The House of Mirth)
8. Why Would a Textual Mother Haunt a House Like This?
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I: WHAT'S FEMALE ABOUT GOTHIC?
1. Dreams and Visions
2. Woman as Gothic Visions (The Italian)
3. The Woman on the Bed (Frankenstein)
4. Charlotte Bronte's Post-Gothic Gothic
PART II: GOTHIC UNDONE
5. Eva's Curl (Uncle Tom's Cabin)
6. Exorcising the Mother (Daniel Deronda)
7. Tableau Mort (The House of Mirth)
8. Why Would a Textual Mother Haunt a House Like This?
Notes
Bibliography
Index