| Summary: | From the perspective of Neo-Victorian studies, it can be claimed that the character of the Woman in Black in Susan Hill’s eponymous novel, published in 1983, is based on Victorian portrayals of the myth of “the fallen woman.” These Victorian representations often highlight mythemes pertaining to Gothic archetypes, such as the ghost, the vampire, the madwoman and the witch, giving evidence of the association between “the fallen woman” and Kristeva’s notion of the abject, which involves the feeling of subjective horror upon the blurring of what is self and what is other. Hill’s reinterpretation of the myth of “the fallen woman” recaptures Gothic mythemes pervading Victorian representations, but, in contrast with most of these Victorian portrayals, the Woman in Black arises as an actual Gothic archetype insofar as she is a female ghost who is brought back to life to vindicate herself and perpetuate her haunting existence. This article aims at analyzing the intertextuality existing between Hill’s portrayal of the Woman in Black and Victorian representations of “the fallen woman” which resort to Gothic mythemes, with the purpose of identifying Hill’s own contribution to reinterpret and update this Victorian myth.
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