Contemporary Women's Gothic Fiction: Carnival, Hauntings and Vampire Kisses

273 Pages·2016·3.014 MB·English

by  Gina Wisker (auth.)

CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S
GOTHIC FICTION
Gina Wisker
Palgrave Gothic
Series Editor
Clive   Bloom
English and American Studies
Middlesex University, UK
This series of gothic books is the fi rst to treat the genre in its many inter-
related, global and ‘extended’ cultural aspects to show how the taste for
the medieval and the sublime gave rise to a perverse taste for terror and
horror and how that taste became not only international (with a huge fan
base in places such as South Korea and Japan) but also the sensibility of
the modern age, changing our attitudes to such diverse areas as the nature
of the artist, the meaning of drug abuse and the concept of the self. The
series is accessible but scholarly, with referencing kept to a minimum and
theory contextualised where possible. All the books are readable by an
intelligent student or a knowledgeable general reader interested in the
subject.
Editorial Advisory Board
Dr Ian Conrich, University of South Australia
Barry Forshaw, author/journalist, UK
Professor Gregg Kucich, University of Notre Dame, USA
Professor Gina Wisker, University of Brighton, UK
Dr Catherine Wynne, University of Hull, UK
Dr Alison Peirse, University of Yorkshire, UK
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14698
Gina   Wisker
Contemporary
Women’s Gothic
Fiction
Carnival, Hauntings and Vampire Kisses
Gina   Wisker
Centre for Learning & Teaching
University of Brighton
East Sussex, United Kingdom
University of South Africa
University of Southern Queensland

Palgrave Gothic
ISBN 978-1-137-30348-6 ISBN 978-1-137-30349-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-30349-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016953848
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A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It has been a really enjoyable experience writing this book and I thank
colleagues at Palgrave Macmillan and Clive Bloom for their patience and
support, and the hard work of Michelle Bernard, Alison Curry and Liam
Wisker in various aspects of research and fi nessing. My Gothic literature
students at the universities of Brighton, Anglia Ruskin and Cambridge
have been wonderful in responding to early drafts of parts of the book as
we’ve discussed the literature, and friends in the Contemporary Women’s
Writing Association, the International Association for the Fantastic in the
Arts and the International Gothic Association have shared insights which
have made this a better contribution to Gothic criticism. Finally, thanks to
Roxy who sat through all of it just hoping for a walk.
v
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
2 Angela Carter: Living in Gothic Times 3 3
3 Margaret Atwood and Canadian Women’s
Gothic—Spite, Lies, Split Selves and Self-Deception 6 3
4 Cultural Haunting: Toni Morrison and Tananarive Due 91
5 Postcolonial and Cultural Haunting Revenants—Letting
the ‘Right’ Ones in 117
6 Testing the Fabric of Bluebeard’s Castle: Postcolonial
Reconfi gurations, Demythologising, Re-Mythologising
and Shape-Shifting 133
7 Vampire Bites 157
8 Vampire Kisses 187
vii
viii CONTENTS
9 Ghostings and Hauntings: Splintering the Fabric
of Domestic Gothic 2 07
10 Opening the Gates to Darkness: Gothic Diversity 2 35
Bibliography 2 53
Index 2 61
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Contemporary Gothic has made horror respectable. As a literary form
studied in universities, enamoured of critics, when contemporary Gothic
combines the edgy enlightenment of queer theory, and postcolonialism,
with the multiple perspectives and angles of diversity of origin, sexuality
and culture, this broad scope offers a disconcerting enrichment. Gothic
is everywhere. Through its relentless questioning, it exposes dis-ease and
discomfort, sometimes only to reinforce the complacencies it disrupts, but
more thrillingly, very often leaving writers and readers more aware and less
comfortable. As Marie Mulvey-Roberts comments, ‘Gothic life, like that
of a giant poisonous plant with far-reaching tendrils, has found its suste-
nance by feeding off the credulities of its reader. This hot-house hybrid is
constantly mutating, making new growths out of old as in its propensity
for parody and pastiche. What remains consistent, according to Angela
Carter), is the retention of “a singular moral function—that of provoking
unease”’ (Mulvey-Roberts 1 998 , p. xvii).
So why do contemporary women write the Gothic? And what are the
essential links between feminist perspectives and critiques, and the con-
temporary Gothic written by women?
I want this book to explore and celebrate contemporary women’s liter-
ary Gothic, the contradictions and the richness of ways in which contem-
porary women writers, both established and new, conventional and radical,
use the opportunities afforded by the Gothic to engage with culture,
imagination and their arguments. The Gothic undercuts and destabilises
© The Author(s) 2016 1
G. Wisker, Contemporary Women’s Gothic Fiction,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-30349-3_1
2 G. WISKER
single readings, as it does its own conventions, and in this spirit I will ques-
tion how we read them, draw attention to an ongoing dialogue between
the texts and indicate what readings are offered by a growing body of
critics, popular and academic. We need to appreciate the diverse panoply
of the Gothic which has been seen perversely as both ubiquitous and neg-
ligible in contemporary society and contemporary writing.
So why is the literary Gothic the focus of this book? It is because it has
designs upon us. The Gothic, at least in its literary form, shakes up and
problematises tired ways of perceiving and expressing normality by disrupt-
ing the everyday world of residual compliance. It disturbs, upsets, ironises
and parodies our deeply held beliefs and our safe but constraining narratives
of, among others, progress, identity, power, family, safety and love. Many of
those issues have a particularly nuanced meaning for, and effect on, women,
and contemporary women writers of the Gothic are particularly concerned
with those bedazzling and constrictive narratives of security, safety and col-
lusion which society peddles and which the Gothic undercuts and queries.
Dis-ease and uncertainty are key coordinates in Gothic literature. Like bees
and wasps fertilising the garden, its disturbance is, I argue, ultimately good
for us because it shakes us out of blinkered complacencies and encourages
questioning. Even the unpalatable insights the Gothic serves us can be fruit-
ful. However, like wasps in particular, it can pack a cruel sting, since defamil-
iarisation, instability and contradiction are often uncomfortable. As such,
the Gothic can be transformative, since the act of destabilising can trigger
critical or even promote new radical thinking. Not surprisingly, it might
not be welcome in certain repressive regimes. Owing to this critical edge, it
causes us to rethink and reconsider the world around us. Much of its cur-
rent popularity, even necessity in terms of literary study, derives precisely
from that sting, that disturbance which leads to transformative thinking.
There are several voices in this book. One is my own, because much
of what I am discussing is my own response to the texts and authors I
have chosen and my response to developments in contemporary women’s
Gothic, based on my reading of texts and critics, and from discussions
with students over the years. The word ‘we’ has been used to indicate how
we are part of a readership with rights to comment on these texts, which
facilitate our engagement with cultural and personal issues. I use ‘we’ too
in recognition of the readers, critics and students who might fi nd this
book useful. An academic scholarly voice is focalised in the expectation
that this book will be part of a useful, informed and ongoing critical dis-
cussion with other scholars in this rapidly growing fi eld.