Gothic heroes : the monster within

It is convenient to dismiss the gothic villains within as invasive and is a threat that the dominant community desires to expel. By invasive, I refer to the intrusive way in which the villains or monsters posit an abnormality within the heteronormative hegemony of the Victorian period. The heteronor...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wong, Deborah
Other Authors: Terence Richard Dawson
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/59148
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author Wong, Deborah
author2 Terence Richard Dawson
author_facet Terence Richard Dawson
Wong, Deborah
author_sort Wong, Deborah
collection NTU
description It is convenient to dismiss the gothic villains within as invasive and is a threat that the dominant community desires to expel. By invasive, I refer to the intrusive way in which the villains or monsters posit an abnormality within the heteronormative hegemony of the Victorian period. The heteronormative hegemony sets the framework of the balance that the heroes vow to protect since any breach of it is deemed transgressive and threatening to order. By using this framework, any foreign body outside the hegemonic is abnormal, or queer. The gothic hero becomes the person who eventually overcomes the gothic villain. The texts that inform this inquiry will be Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Sarah Waters’s Affinity and three of Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories, William Wilson, Ligeia and The Fall of the House of Usher. Focusing on Gothic Literature brings to mind theories of the abject, the uncanny, and the motivations of ritual, because these realms of study ground the motivations for why the horror of gothic novels simultaneously compels and revolts us. Delving into these theories point at the doubling effect of the hero upon the villain and vice versa; so my thesis proposes that they are essentially the same being.
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spelling ntu-10356/591482019-12-10T14:17:31Z Gothic heroes : the monster within Wong, Deborah Terence Richard Dawson School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Humanities It is convenient to dismiss the gothic villains within as invasive and is a threat that the dominant community desires to expel. By invasive, I refer to the intrusive way in which the villains or monsters posit an abnormality within the heteronormative hegemony of the Victorian period. The heteronormative hegemony sets the framework of the balance that the heroes vow to protect since any breach of it is deemed transgressive and threatening to order. By using this framework, any foreign body outside the hegemonic is abnormal, or queer. The gothic hero becomes the person who eventually overcomes the gothic villain. The texts that inform this inquiry will be Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Sarah Waters’s Affinity and three of Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories, William Wilson, Ligeia and The Fall of the House of Usher. Focusing on Gothic Literature brings to mind theories of the abject, the uncanny, and the motivations of ritual, because these realms of study ground the motivations for why the horror of gothic novels simultaneously compels and revolts us. Delving into these theories point at the doubling effect of the hero upon the villain and vice versa; so my thesis proposes that they are essentially the same being. Bachelor of Arts 2014-04-24T05:17:33Z 2014-04-24T05:17:33Z 2014 2014 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/59148 en Nanyang Technological University 38 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle DRNTU::Humanities
Wong, Deborah
Gothic heroes : the monster within
title Gothic heroes : the monster within
title_full Gothic heroes : the monster within
title_fullStr Gothic heroes : the monster within
title_full_unstemmed Gothic heroes : the monster within
title_short Gothic heroes : the monster within
title_sort gothic heroes the monster within
topic DRNTU::Humanities
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/59148
work_keys_str_mv AT wongdeborah gothicheroesthemonsterwithin