Summary
Summary Gothic critics summaries and quotes
- Module
- Literature post-1900 (H472)
- Institution
- OCR
extensive notes on gothic critics and useful quotes and how they relate to themes. Bloody chamber and Frankenstein
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Gothic Critics:Anne Radcliffe:
Terror “awakens the faculties to a higher degree of life”
Horror “annihilation of the sense”
David Punter
“the gothic deals with the illicit desires prohibited by society”
“The gothic reminds us that we are mainly driven by our passions”
“the great taboo” bringing life back from death
“Avenger is transformed into the form of the person who he is attempted to gain his revenge
against”
Shelley
“the gothic is an attempt to expose and explore the unconscious world of desires and fears that both
society and the individual attempt to supress”
“quicken the beatings of the heart and curdle the blood”
“speak to the mysterious fears of our nature”
“awaken thrilling horror”
“hideous progeny”
“My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings”
“Speak the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror”
“dream that my little baby came to life again”
Helen Simpson, introduction to Bloody Chamber:
“symbolism of her favoured form, the tale”
“she was drawn to tales of terror”
“the Bloody Chamber is like a diamond reflecting and refracting a variety of portraits of desire and
sexuality”
“her work caused shock waves”
“content is violently sexual”
“fuelled by Gothic themes”
“metaphor of fantasy can be helpful in airing controversial subject matter.”
“passivity is not an intrinsically virtuous state – especially not in women”
“human nature is not immutable” – metamorphoses in the tales
“the heroines of these stories are struggling out of the straitjackets of history and ideology”
, “the unnamed first-person heroin of The Bloody Chamber appears at first to be a Justine-sacrificial
virgin in a white dress”
John Berger Ways of Seeing:
“men act and women appear”
“nakedness reveals itself”
“nudity is on display”
“nudity is a form of dress”
De Sade
Justine (1791) continually taken advantage of by men, dies in despair.
Juliette (1797) an amoral nymphomaniac (addicted to sex) achieves considerable influence, success
and happiness by exploiting her sexuality.
“Passivity not only undesirable but also deadly.”
Christopher Frayling
“we live in Gothic times”
Lucie Armitt
“Gothic tales that prey upon the restrictive enclosures of fairy-tale formulae”
Angelia Carter:
Carter’s Sadeian Women and the Ideology of Pornography (1979) met with criticism from feminists
because de Sade’s work was sexually exploitative and Carter refused to vilify him. Carter thought he
gave “rights of free sexuality for women”. Carter doesn’t endorse the horrendous violence and
misogyny present in de Sade’s writings but used it to show sexual freedoms.
“to be the object of desire is to be defined in the passive case”
“to exist in the passive case is to die in the passive case – that is to be killed”
“can a bird sing the only song it knows”
“I wanted to half-seduce the reader into this wicked, glamourous, fatal world”
“the strong abuse, exploit and meatify the weak”
“Justine and Juliette reflect and complement one another”
Notes on Gothic Mode:
“function of provoking unease” when you feel unease you don’t readily accept things, you challenge
and try to understand.
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