Irina Yu. Popova, PhD in Philology, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, 1, building 51, 119991, Moscow, Russia.
This paper attempts to consider a few first literary reactions to Gothic Novel, a most popular genre at the late 18 th century. First, we aim at showing S.T. Coleridge as an author who might have become weary of the recurring situations and devices of the Gothic – hence some unexpected funny features at the beginning of Cristabel. We then treat the two first novels famous for the episodes and entourage revealing parody of the Gothic as their target: they are Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and Nightmare Abbey by T.L. Peacock. We then turn to E.A. Poe and regard his short story The Fall of the House of Usher as a collection of multifarious Gothic characteristics. In the final part of the paper we try to show that in some works by Charles Dickens certain “Gothic” scenes are in fact not such: all the supernatural and scary sooner or later get their rational explanation, everything pregnant with evil and tragedy in the end evaporates and all those concerned remain happy. Neither do those scenes parody the Gothic – they are rather sentimental than comic. We suggest therefore that Dickens’s aim may have been pastiche of the Gothic culture.
Gothic fiction; parody; comic; supernatural; realistic.
10.02.2024
15.03.2024
Popova, I. Yu. “English Reactions to Gothic Fiction from S.T. Coleridge to Charles Dickens: Parodies or … ?”. Literaturovеdcheskii zhurnal, no. 3(65), 2024, pp. 87–98. (In Russ.)
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