Gothic Histories

Description

From the eighteenth century onwards, the genres of the Gothic novel and the historical novel have been intertwined. Indeed, the Gothic has been described as “a mode of history” (Punter) – a way of exploring “the peculiar unwillingness of the past to go away” (Sage and Smith). In Gothic texts, tales that have been forgotten or suppressed re-emerge, as power struggles centre on accounts of the past: whose stories we hear, and who shapes them. Women’s fiction has often deployed these themes to interrogate dominant narratives, imagining new approaches to the ghosts of the past. The anniversary seminar of the Gothic Women Project celebrates this lineage, exploring the rich relationship between the Gothic and the historical novel from the early days of the genre through to the turbulent interwar years of the twentieth century.

Period	12 Sept 2022
Event type	Seminar
Degree of Recognition	International