Was there ever a “Female Gothic”?

Abstract

This article examines the reception history of women-authored Gothic texts from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, arguing that the generic descriptor "Female Gothic" more accurately reflects the ideological goals of second-wave feminist literary criticism than the narratives of early women Gothic writers. While several critics have attempted to destabilize the term Female Gothic, its usage persists as a short-hand form to describe narratives in which distressed female heroines are imprisoned in the domestic sphere and threatened with extortion, rape and forced marriage. This essay asks why criticism clings to an understanding of this genre as one depicting female victimization despite overwhelming textual evidence that represents a much more complicated picture of women's use and engagement with the Gothic mode. It is argued that the answer to this question rests in looking at how Gothic women's writing was received in the early nineteenth century and how that reception history shaped the discursive strategies of second-wave feminist literary critics.

Lasmi Dan Gothic Feminism Diana Long Hoeveler

“…Gothic feminism pada awalnya mengangkat kisah misteri dan ketakutan yang melampaui akal sehat (mistik), logis, dan tatanan positif di dunia. Kemudian kisah tersebut dikembangkan pada karakter-karakter elitis di sebuah kastil mewah, mengerikan, dan kabibalistik (Hoeveler, 1998;Ledoux, 2017). Hadirnya perempuan dengan suasana yang berbeda ini awalnya muncul pada abad ke-18 di Inggris atas tulisan Mary Wollstonecraft berjudul A Vindication of the Rights of Women, kemudian disusul anaknya sebagai penulis gothic feminis paling terkenal, yakni Mary Shelley, penulis Frankenstein.…”

Nigromancia Y Género. La Bruja en La Narrativa De Pilar Pedraza

“…Para el cuestionamiento de esta categoría crítica, véaseLedoux (2017). Como dice la autora: "Narratives that focus on the struggles of a virtuous heroine often portray her as not only suffering, but also exerting agency, displaying physical courage, and gaining empowerment withing Gothic spaces" (2017: 3).…”

A Dialética Gótico-Fantástica Em “A Mulher Vampiro”, De E.T.A. Hoffmann

“…violência sexual e a própria sexualidade feminina -todos sob o signo estético do horror que era comum ao gótico. Contudo, segundo elucida Ellen Ledoux (2016), divisões pautadas em noções estanques de gênero não são consistentes em se tratando de um modo literário tão esguio quanto o Gótico, pois os topoi do Gótico dito feminino estavam também presentes nas narrativas de escritores como Horace Walpole, Matthew Lewis, Charles Maturin e, como salientamos acima, E.T.A. Hoffmann.…”