English Irish Gothic and Their Modernist Turns

English & Irish Gothic: and Their Modernist Turns Ying-hsiung Chou yhchou@mail. nctu. edu. tw 幻奇文學跨界想像研習營 (Dec. 9, 2007) 1

I. Gothicism and/or Modernity 2

In a Metro Station Ezra Pound (1913) The apparition of these faces in the crowd Petals on a wet, black bough 3

Gothicism and Modernity l Gothicism in modern times: l literature, etc. architecture, film, music, fashion, l Modernity=Gothicism? 4

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The American Gothic, by Grant Wood (1930) 9

Two Faces of Modernity I (positive) l Modernist disenchantment (Weber) l Then: l Enchantment of the world dominated by myth and religion in the Medieval world l Now: l Its disenchantment through science 10

Modernity characterized by secularization (in religion, e. g. , Protestantism) rationalization/legitimation. , e. g. , l capitalist rational management system l bureaucracy in governance through the rule of law 11

Representing Modernity I l Perspective l Harmonic l Liberalist in visual art principles in music realism in the novel* 12

*Liberalism and the Rise of the Novel l Liberalist emphasis on individuality (and development of its potentials) (Ian Watt) l Liberalist adversariality principle through which a person coexists with her fellow citizens l Human beings are rational and are thus capable of sorting out their problems in their community without recourse to absolute powers l For example, Bildungsroman (novel of formative education, e. g. , Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) 13

Two Faces of Modernity II: Modernist (re)enchantment? (negative) l social pathology (vs. social progress), e. g. , l anomie (social instability caused by the disruption of order, which is responsible for suicide, crime and mental disorder; cf. Durkheim) l alienation l the (Marx) gothic/grotesque 14

Gothic Modernity or, the underside of modernity l Woolf: haunted house of the mind l Joyce: capitalist specteralization 15

Woolf’s experimentations on l The mind and the world, and their interpenetration l By way of probing the underside of reality l. A reality that is felt to be unacceptable (due to war, paternalism, materialism, etc. ) 16

“A Haunted House” (from Virginia Woolf, Monday or Tuesday [1921]) l. A classic Gothic story with l. A ghostly couple l. A haunted house l Supernatural l Innocent happenings subjects 17

Gothicism with a Modernist Turn Cognitive Hesitancies l. A ghostly couple revisit their old house looking for “it” (that they’ve left behind or left unachieved before they died? ) l They go about their search, trying as much as possible not to disturb the current tenants. 18

l But the latter (the narrator being one of them) are already aware of their visit l While the house is haunted by the visitors, the ghostly couple are also being stalked by the narrator l And in the “melee” of knowing and being known, the house also takes on a life of its own and pronounces, “Safe, safe” 19

l To add to the confusion, nature--as an extension of the house, including what’s inside and outside --also joins in, making “sense” further inaccessible l The outside scene is seen darkly through the glass (cf. 1 Corinthians 12: “Now we see through a glass, darkly) l And as the natural world is projected unto the domestic space, it becomes free-floating and intangible 20

l As the narrator pushes for an explanation for the visitation, death is introduced as it has already taken the ghostly couple away from each other hundreds of years ago l ”Death us” was the glass; death was between 21

l The story ends with “I” (the narrator) waking up (cf. “human voices wake us, and we drown, ”) crying, is this your buried treasure? The light in the heart” l “Oh, 22

Six Implications l Am I the one you’ve been looking for? Or, am I the light in the heart? (The perceiver turned into the perceived? ) l And, like narrator, like reader: Am I, the reader, the haunted, somehow suffering from my inability to know the world l And yet am paradoxically implicated in narration (i. e. , the focus being no longer on the hard-nosed world out there, but the mind itself, asking: “What do I know” [cf. Montaign] )? l 23

Strategies of a Modern Gothic Reading l 1. Floating pronouns (in the absence of fixed antecedents): they (the ghostly couple? ), one (the resident in the house, I? ), it (the buried treasure, the past, death? ) l 2. countrapuntality of self and other 24

l 3. Seeing and being seen as two-way, reciprocal cognition l I, the narrator, am left undisturbed and l I stalk them even though they could not been seen, because, l we are separated by the glass, which is death 25

l 4. The interpenetration of the real and the ghostly l The world is seen darkly in/through the glass l The world casts its shadows in the drawing room—”spread about the floor, hung upon the walls, pendant from the ceiling—what? ” l But the world cannot be grasped empirically— ”. . . my hands are empty” 26

l 5. The interpenetration of the animate and the inanimate l The house seems to be energized by the visitation and takes on a life of its own, providing a shelter to the visitants (“Safe, safe”) l Above all, the house is intelligent and knowledgeable about the buried treasure 27

l 6. The interpenetration of life and death l Our eyes darken; we hear no steps beside us; we see no lady spread her ghostly cloak I cried “Oh, is this your buried treasure? The light in the heart. ” l Waking, l (Existential and epistemological death-in-life? ) 28

Two Modes of Death in Modern Life l Woolf: the ambivalences of human intelligence (i. e. , its/her inability to know vis-à-vis the privileging of reverie) renders people less than human (epistemological aporia) l Joyce: the dehumanized condition of city life reduces people to a stage of paralyzed automatons and hence death 29

“The Dead” (from James Joyce, Dubliners [1907, 1914]) l Biblical Gabriel: An archangel in the Bible, he was employed to announce the birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah and to announce the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary l Gabriel Conroy attends a Christmas party and despite his self-claimed voice of enlightenment finds himself increasingly alienated, even accused of being a stranger, a West Briton (149) 30

l As the party winds down, Gabriel sees a woman standing at the top of the staircase listening to some indistinct music. The woman turns out to be his wife, l but there is something about her that he cannot quite see through l The distant music turns out to be a tune Gretta’s teenage lover once sang to her before he died soon after serenading her in the rain 31

l Gabriel’s alienation multiplies. He is physically denied by his wife. l The story ends with Gabriel feeling the onset of death— l ”one by one they were all becoming shades (176). He imagines he sees “the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree” 32

l “The solid world itself which these dead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving and dwindling” (All That’s Solid Melts into Air. ) l “The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward” l Voices from/of the other (world) 33

II. English Gothic 34

Psychological grounds for Gothicism l Progress l Reason or regression/degeneration or un-reason (the unconscious) 35

Historical grounds for Gothicism? l French Revolution l Industrial Revolution(s) 36

All That is Solid Melts into Air l What seems is not what is l Spectralization of modern life l “The Adoration of the Magi” (1897) by Yeats l “Midsummer Night Madness” (1932) by O’Faolain l “A Haunted House” (1921) by Woolf 37

Figuration between the Marvellous and the Uncanny l Accepting the supernatural as it is l Realizing the potential inadequacy of a rational epistemological (i. e. , how we know what we know) outlook l Cognitive hesitancies 38

Hesitancies 1 l Past and Present/Future l Past coming back to haunt present, e. g. , Carmilla, “The Words on the Window Pane. ” l Self and Other l Self being possessed by Other, e. g. , “The Adoration of the Magi” 39

Hesitancies 2 l Real and Un-real l Historical settings and characters transformed into their uncanny other, e. g. , “Midsummer Night Madness” l Textual/Visual and historical l Textually constructed world superimposed upon the real world, e. g. , Dracula 40

English and/or Irish Gothic 1 (Cf. English Gothic slide 45) l Minerva Press (London) publishes a large portion of Gothic novels written during the 1790 s by women on Irish themes l English Gothic: Contra-realist outlook* l things are not what they seem, esp. in modern times dominated by reason, technology and bureaucracy l representation of the uncanny as an act of empowerment 41

*Realism Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel (1957) l Decline Idea) of classical idealism (universal l In favor of a modern outlook with emphasis on the individual: l Possessive individualism l Liberal individualism 42

English and/or Irish Gothic 2 l Irish Gothic: l. A branch of English Gothic l A uniquely Irish/Anglo-Irish or Anglo-Anglican mode l Attachment to Irish history and politics (Mc. Cormack 833), or 43

English and/or Irish Gothic 3 Anglo-Irish double bind (choosing between two unsatisfactory decisions) l demonization of the indigenous Catholic tradition (for its corrupt practices) l realization of their own identity with that which they demonize (cf. more Irish than the Irish) 44

Recap: Irish Gothic 1 l. A branch of English Gothic, with specific local colors, e. g. , l Catholic/Irish Church l Nationalism/sectarianism l national character(s), Protestant magic/occultism (Freemasons) l famine l etc. 45

Recap: Irish Gothic 2 l. A unique mode of representing/reading the Irish experience; l But what precisely is unique about the Irish Gothic? 46

Speculations l Ireland as a Gothic space, which is paradoxical, anomalous l Demonization of Irish and Identifying with the Irish l Anglo-Irish writing in a Gothic mode to make up for their declining influence (Roy Foster, in Killeen 2) l Gothic writing as exorcism 47

English Gothic 1 (Periodization) l Classic/Literary Gothic (1764 -1820 s), often dealing with dynastic disorders in an alien setting involving victimizations (of a hapless maiden) l The Castle of Otronto (1764): recovered text with l The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794): the heroine’s dubious authenticity and dynastic disorders (cf. Mac. Pherson, Ossian, 1765) gradual realization of her identity as a illegitimate child (Miles 46 -47) 48

Strawberry Hill 49

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English Gothic 2 l Romantic (1820 s-1840 s) l Frankenstein (1818, 1831): l Instinctual self (vs. rational self) l Forbidden knowledge, overreaching (the Faustian) (vs. Grace) l Science and reason (vs. religion) l Monstrosity (vs. humanity) 51

Schloss-Frankenstein 52

Benjamin Franklin, 1752 53

Luigi Galvani, 1771 54

Bioelectricity 55

English Gothic 3 l Victorian l Strange (1840 s*-1890 s) Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886): self and other; good and evil; outward respectability and inner lust l The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890): fin-desiecle quest for authenticity and spontaneity 56

*Gothic Revival l 1840 sl. A new movement in architecture favoring the medieval over the classical 57

Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 58

Victoria Tower, Westminster 59

Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh 60

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Richard Mansfield, 1887 (Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) 62

Deacon William Brodie (1741 -1788, councillor, craftsman, thief) 63

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English Gothic 4 l Modern (1890 s-) l Dracula, 1897 l Occultism l Desire against science against Manners 65

Castle Dracula 66

Dracula (1931) 67

Marfan Syndrome l 馬凡氏症 Marfan Syndrome (MFS) 簡介、病因 　　馬凡氏症是一種系統性的結締組織病變，古時候的劉備（傳言其雙手過膝），及高瘦的美國總統林肯均被懷疑為馬凡氏症候群之病患。最早於 1896年由法國小兒科醫師 Marfan 提出臨床報告。馬凡氏症患者在臨床上具有骨骼系統、眼睛系統、心血管系統等三大方面臨床特徵，目前已知約70%~93%馬凡氏患者是因為位於第 15對染色體上的 fibrillin-1 (FBN 1) 基因發生突變所造成，帶有此基因突變者均會發病，但是依據基因突變點的不同，臨床症狀也有相當大差別，甚至同一家族中也可能有不同程度的臨床症狀， 嚴重者可能出生即有生命危險，輕微者早期幾乎不具任何症狀。 發生率、遺傳模式 　　馬凡氏症的發生率依國外統計約為 1/10000，而且不具有人種或性別差異性，國內並無相關統計資料，但依照台北榮總患者人數估計，國內發生率約與國外相當。馬凡氏 症為體染色體顯性遺傳疾病，因此如果雙親中有一人患有此症，其子代不分性別，每胎皆有50%的機會患有此症。 臨床症狀及診斷 　　臨床診斷標準根據 1996 年 De. Paepe 等人所提出的主要及次要特徵作為診斷的參考： 一、 骨骼系統 1. 主要特徵 l l l l l 胸腔骨骼異常：胸骨突出或凹陷（雞胸或漏斗胸） 上下半身比例縮減（ < 0. 85／成年及年長之兒童）、展臂長與身高之比值過高（ > 1. 05） 0. 85／成年及年長之兒童）、展臂長與身高之比值過高（ 1. 05） 因為四肢骨骼過度生長，因此具有蜘蛛狀手指，使得手腕有Walker-Murdoch之特徵（當一邊手掌握住對側的手腕時，其姆指與小指能夠重疊在一起）；姆指有 Steinberg特徵 （指在沒外力的協助下，當手姆指可以向尺骨側彎曲時，可以超出掌面） 脊柱側彎（scoliosis）、脊柱後凸（kyphosis）或脊柱脫位（spondylolithesis） 脊柱側彎（scoliosis ）、脊柱後凸（kyphosis）或脊柱脫位（spondylolithesis 肘關節伸展程度減小（ < 170 度） 扁平足 髖骨突出（protrusio acetabuli） 2. 次要特徵 漏斗胸嚴重程度中度 關節過動（hypermobility） 高而呈拱形的上顎及發育不全的下顎、牙齒排列擁擠 68

Vlad Tepes Dracula (1431 -1476) 69

III. Irish Gothic 70

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Anglo-Irish Ascendancy: Four Phases (1) l First Settlement (1603) l Old (Gaelic) Irish l Old English vs. l Anglo-Irish/Anglican (vs. Catholics, Presbyterians and Dissenters) 72

l Irish 60) Rebellion and Re-conquests (1652 - l Execution of rebels and Catholics after 1641 Irish uprising and settlement to the Caribbean l Proposed dispossessing of land originally owned by the Catholics to make way for the adventurers/settlers (notably from Scotland) 73

Anglo-Irish Ascendancy: Four Phases (2) l Ascendancy (Anglo-Irish/Anglican) l Irish rising and the Williamite War (16891691) l Penal Laws against the Catholics and the Presbyterians l By mid-18 th century, 95% of land in the Protestants’ ownership 74

l 1798 l Act rising (Emmet) of Union 1801 75

Anglo-Irish Ascendancy: Four Phases (3) l Contraction l Absentee landlords l Catholic Emancipations (1829) l Potato Famine (1845 -52) Food shipped to England l Restrictions on relief funds l 76

Anglo-Irish Ascendancy: Four Phases (4) l Siege l Home Rule (to grant autonomy to the territory) legislation aimed at ending exploiting the Irish since the Act of Union l Gladstone’s unsuccessful attempts to pass a Home Rule bill in 1886, 1893 l revived in 1912 but interrupted by WW 1 l l Irish War of Independence (1919 -1922) 77

Irish Gothic 1 l Late 18 th century: l Regina Maria Roche, Children of the Abbey (1796) l Mrs. Kelly, Ruins of Avondale Priory (1796) l Mrs. F. C. Patrick, The Irish Heiress (1797) l ‘the Wife of an Officer, ” Most Ghosts (1798) l Mrs. Colpoy, The Irish Excursion (1801) 78

Irish Gothic 2 l Charles Robert Maturin* (1780 -1824): l Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) l insanity as a symptom/trope of divided loyalty during the civil war 79

*Huguenots l French Protestants emigrating to England Ireland in the late 17 th century l 1598: Edict of Nantes l 1572: Massacre of St. Barthelomew l 1629: Revocation of Edict l 1685: 400, 000 emigrated to England, Netherlands, Germany 80

Irish Gothic 3 l Joseph Sheridan Le. Fanu (1814 -1873): Carmilla (1872) l Vampire Mircalla comes back after 2 hundred years and disguise herself as Carmilla (Laura’s roommate) and Millarca (the General’s niece) (anagrams) l. A past that refuses to be put to rest returns to haunt modern people 81

Illustration of Carmilla from The Dark Blue by D. H. Friston, 1872 http: //www. lacrypte. net/images/carmilla 1. jpg 82

Irish Gothic 4 l Bram Stoker (1847 -1912) l Dracula (1897) 83

Irish Gothic 5 l W. B. Yeats, John Millington Synge, Elizabeth Bowen 84

References l Killeen, Jarlath. “Irish Gothic: A Theoretical Introduction. ” The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies. http: //irishgothichorrorjournal. homestead. com/ja rlathprinter. html l Mc. Cormack, W. J. “Irish Gothic and After. ” The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. Eds. Seamus Deane (General Editor), Andrew Carpenter and Jonathan Williams. Derry: Field Day Publications, 1991. Vol. II, 831 -854. 85

l Miles, Robert. “Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis. ” A Companion to the Gothic. Ed. David Punter. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. 41 -57. l Sage, Victor. “Irish Gothic: C. R. Maturin and J. S. Le. Fanu. ” A Companion to the Gothic. Ed. David Punter. Oxford: Blackwell. 81 -93. 86

IV. Appendix: Nationalist Gothicism 87

l The Terrific Register; or, Record of Crimes, Judgments, Providences and Calamities, 2 vols. (London: Sherwood, Jones and Co. , 1825). 88

The Terrific Register 2: 17 (The Midnight Assassination) 89

Robert Emmet (1778 -1803) 90

l Unconscious act as a result of some supernatural visitations connected with nationalism l Cf. “Cathleen Ni Houlihan” (1902) by Yeats about 1798 Irish Rebellion 91

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Maud Gonne (1866 -1953) l The End 93