Splattered Ink: Postfeminist Gothic Fiction and Gendered Violence

273 Pages·2016·1.359 MB·English

by  Sarah E Whitney

SARAH E. WHITNEY
SPLATTERED
INK
POSTFEMINIST GOTHIC FICTION
AND
GENDERED VIOLENCE
Splattered Ink

Splattered Ink
Postfeminist Gothic Fiction
and Gendered Violence
Sarah E. WhitnEy
UnIVerSIty oF IllInoIS PreSS
Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield
© 2016 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Whitney, Sarah E., 1976– author.
Title: Splattered ink : postfeminist gothic fiction and gendered
violence / Sarah E Whitney.
Description: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Description based on
print version record and CIP data provided by publisher;
resource not viewed.
Identifiers: lccn 2016018900 (print) | lccn 2016005497 (ebook)
| isbn 9780252098895 (E-Book) | isbn 9780252040467
(hardback : acid-free paper) | isbn 9780252081927 (paper :
acid-free paper)
Subjects: LCSH: American fiction—Women authors—History
and criticism. | Gothic fiction (Literary genre), American—
History and criticism. | BISAC: LITERARY CRITICISM /
Gothic & Romance. | LITERARY CRITICISM / Feminist. |
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory.
Classification: lcc ps374.w6 (print) | lcc ps374.w6 w47 2016
(ebook) | ddc 813.009/9287—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016018900
To my family—
James and Mary Whitney
Craig Warren
Jack and Reid Warren
In the order in which we first met

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Terror and Brightness:
What Can Postfeminist Gothic Do? 1
2 Uneasy Lie the Bones:
Alice Sebold’s Postfeminist Gothic 23
3 A Woman Might as Well Be Brave:
Susanna Moore’s Ambient Fright 59
4 Break Through to Me: Sapphire’s Ghost
in the Postfeminist Machine 85
5 Waking the Dead: Patricia Cornwell’s
Forensic Imagination 115
6 Hedging Her Bets: Jodi Picoult’s
Textured Ambivalence 138
7 Up from the Basement: Postfeminist
Gothic’s Captive Imagination 165
Notes 201
Works Cited 211
Index 245

Acknowledgments
My interests in gothic literature and in women’s literature have been shaped by
many wonderful teachers from grade school to graduate school. Thank you to
them all, most especially to Ann Connolly, Susan Dale, Susan Fraiman, Terri
Goldrich, Nancy Gray, Elizabeth M. Hull, Deborah Morse, and Kim Wheat-
ley. Thanks also to my Virginia mentors, Sharon Davie and Ginger Moran.
I sincerely appreciate the support, encouragement, and cups of coffee
provided by my colleagues in the English Program and the wider School of
Humanities and Social Sciences at Penn State Erie, the Behrend College.
Nearly all sections of the manuscript were presented and workshopped
over several years at both the College English Association and National
Women’s Studies Association; I always received constructive suggestions
from panelists and audience members. The manuscript reviewers delivered
perceptive comments in a helpful manner, for which I am much obliged. I
want to thank Astrid Henry in particular for her kind, insightful suggestions
about strengthening the manuscript.
I’m indebted to Kristina Peszel for her outstanding technical work pre-
paring the manuscript. Many additional thanks go to Jennifer Clark, Anne
Rogers, and Roberta Engleman for their vital expertise. Working with the
University of Illinois Press has been a very rewarding experience. Larin
McLaughlin provided great support initially, and Dawn Durante has been a
perceptive editor with invaluable suggestions and guidance.
A revised version of chapter 2 was previously published in Tulsa Studies in
Women’s Literature 29.2 (Fall 2010). I am grateful to the University of Tulsa
for permission to reprint the work.