The Gothic Turn: Reading Difference in Metaphor

Gothic Fiction British fiction during the 18 th and 19 th centuries Famous books: The Castle of Otranto The Mysteries of Udolpho Frankenstein The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Dracula Gothic themes: paranoia and doubling, terror, incarceration, sadomasochism and torture (often within the context of the Spanish inquisition), monstrosity, ghostliness and haunting (especially in dark, mysterious castles), the abject, the grotesque, and the uncanny Addressed British anxieties and fears about race, class, gender, and sexuality in the face of an emerging modern cultural identity, and dealt with such anxieties through the use of supernatural, psychological, and highly sexualized themes and recurring symbols

Gothic Metaphors Vampires/Undead, Monsters, Haunted Houses, Live Burial, Madness/Paranoia, Subterranean Passages

Metaphor A direct comparison between two distinctly different things Consists of the “metaphorical term” and the “subject” to which the term is applied The characteristics of the metaphorical term are applied to the subject “But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.” What is the metaphorical term? What are its characteristics? What does that tell us about the subject?

What are some characteristics of these Gothic metaphorical terms? Vampires/UndeadMonsters

Haunted Houses Live Burial

Madness/Insanity Subterranean Passages

Gothic Metaphor as Marker of Outsider Status The Gothic inspires fear and desire at the same time, “an aesthetic of pleasurable fear” (Sedgwick qtd in Halberstam 13) Gothic villains and monsters often represent social issues that threaten those in power (race, class, sexuality, etc.) They are created as a way to express those anxieties and then they are usually destroyed at the end in order to reestablish social order “Gothic gave readers the thrill of reading about so-called perverse activities while identifying aberrant [behaviors] as a condition of otherness” (Halberstam 13)

For example… “Since the age of Frankenstein and Dracula, monsters mark difference within and upon bodies” (Halberstam 8) In 19 th century England, many Jews were immigrating to England from Eastern Europe, sparking anti-Semitism Dracula, written by Bram Stoker in 1897, “embodies and exhibits all the stereotyping of nineteenth-century anti- Semitism” (Halberstam 14) PhysiqueWealth/GreedParasitism Aversion to Christianity Sexual threat

Shifting Metaphors Social anxieties shift depending on the place and time, but Gothic metaphors often appear as a way to express those anxieties and to teach people how to be “normal.” What are some social anxieties today? What are some popular Gothic metaphors today? Can you see any of those anxieties reflected in the Gothic metaphors of today?

True Blood This HBO series about vampires integrating into human society in the contemporary U.S. south. What are the characteristics of these vampires as social metaphor? What anxieties are they addressing? What do you think the show is saying about these issues?