Page 96 - DENG402_HISTORY_OF_ENGLISH_LITERATURE

Unit 12: The Age of Johnson-The Decline of Neoclassicism (Gothic Novel)

the repressed feelings of individuals and, in a twentieth century perspective, the unconscious of the Notes
human psyche. Vijay Mishra, in his essay entitled “The Gothic Sublime,” states the Gothic novel is a
“presentation of the unpresentable” (Mishra 1). The Gothic novel deals with understanding attained
through horror. Mishra also believes the Gothic novel, in the afore-mentioned sense, is a foil to the
typical Romantic novel, wherein the sublime is found through temperance (Mishra 2).
Literary critic, Davis Morris, believes the Gothic novel addresses the horrific, hidden ideas and
emotions within individuals and provides an outlet for them (Morris 1). The strong imagery of
horror and abuse in Gothic novels reveals truths to us through realistic fear, not transcendental
revelation. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick writes about the same idea in her essay, “The Structure of the
Gothic Convention,” and she adds that the idea of a protagonist having a struggle with a terrible,
surreal person or force is a metaphor for an individual’s struggle with repressed emotions or
thoughts (Sedgwick 1). Personifying the repressed idea or feeling gives strength to it and shows
how one, if caught unaware, is overcome with the forbidden desire.
Another author, Joyce Carol Oates, writes of how the repressed emotions, which are personified in
the Gothic novel, are horrible not only because of what they are, but also because of how they
enslave a person (Oates 1). These desires are mysterious, and mystery breeds attraction, and with
attraction, one is easily seduced by them. With this in mind, it is easy to understand how Bertrand
Evans points out the hero in the Gothic novel is consistently weaker than the antagonist and
usually flees from it rather than defeating it. The similar themes of repression of forbidden
desires, and the horror surrounding and penetrating them, are clearly focal points of most Gothic
critics. The enlightenment gained from these aspects is the driving force behind the Gothic novel.

12.5 Parodic Efforts

What is a Parody?

Mikhail Bakhtin defines parody as a “‘stylization,’ that involves the appropriation of the utterances
of others for the purposes of inserting a new orientation of meaning alongside the original
point(s) of view. . . .The imitator [or the author] usually merges utterances so completely that one
‘voice’ is heard” (Howard 14).

Who Writes a Gothic Parody and Why?
By the 1790s, many felt that the Gothic novel was an exhausting trend, and other authors were
starting to write against it (Roberts 83). Both Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Thomas Love
Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey, published in 1818, were the first to react to the genre in the form of
the Gothic parody (271).
When we look at one of the first Gothic parodies, like Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (1818), we
must remember one important aspect raised by Backhtin: the new author parodying the Gothic
genre simply “inserts” his or her opinion into the previous author’s “point of view(s)” (Howard
14). Austen does directly mock the genre with her references to Anne Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of
Udolpho. She in turn “adopts standard Gothic machinery — an abbey, secret closets, and mysterious
manuscripts — only to undercut their significance in her denouement” (Roberts 271). Austen also
depicts “General Tilney as a villain — not a true wife murderer — thus still recognizes that the
fears of patriarchal authority are ultimately genuine” (Roberts 271). Even though she parodies and
mocks the Gothic novel, she still retains part of the genre’s overarching themes: “the individual is
something so precious that society must never be allowed to violate it” (Morse 29).
In general, the Gothic novel refers “behind its trappings and mysteries, presents a powerful critique
of arbitrary power” which many authors who parody it wish to retain. In American history there
have been a few who wish to make the Gothic novel into a political parody, Harriet Jacob’s Incidents
in the Life of a Slave Girl and Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig. It is important to recognize that the Gothic
parodies, and even the Gothic movement, extend beyond British literature and the 19th century.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 89