Changing Notions of Time: Gothic Transformation in Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian
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Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823), the famous Gothic novelist, has the reputation of being the originator of the ‘explained Gothic” among critics because she opted for the rational resolution of all supernatural mysteries in her novels. Some critics read her attempts to clarify all supernatural and irrational elements by the light of reason in tandem with the larger epistemological framework of the Enlightenment. This paper seeks to investigate how Radcliffe’s representative Gothic novel, The Italian (1797), reflects changing conceptions of time in the eighteenth century. It is usually thought that the Gothic novel, temporally set in the middle ages or a distant past, evokes a more “vertical” notion of society in which the figure of the king functions as the apex of a hierarchical and God-given order rooted in a higher time. However, Radcliffe’s rational denoument, this paper argues, recovers the homogenous profane time of modernity from the mythic, confluent, or kairotic time of the Gothic. The analysis focus on the relationship between time consciousness and visibility as a metaphor of reason. As typical motifs of Gothic convention, darkness, isolation, and imprisonment in the Inquisition’s dungeon are quite prevalently used in The Italian. These motifs, which work to instigate terror in the Gothic novel, also have the characteristic of depriving the blindfolded protagonist of both the exterior light of visibility and the inner light of rational thinking ability. The loss of sight can lead the imprisoned protagonist to become subjected to a fearful delirium in a space that is disjointed from the present chronometric time. However, in The Italian, the space of the Inquisition is transformed into a space of true time and light as the Grand Inquisitor himself becomes the guarantor of justice and order. In a preposterous inversion, the Gothic becomes the arena in which the male protagonist is rescued into the modern realm of rationality and enlightened time.
Abstract
Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823), the famous Gothic novelist, has the reputation of being the originator of the ‘explained Gothic” among critics because she opted for the rational resolution of all supernatural mysteries in her novels. Some critics read her attempts to clarify all supernatural and irrational elements by the light of reason in tandem with the larger epistemological framework of the Enlightenment. This paper seeks to investigate how Radcliffe’s representative Gothic novel, The Italian (1797), reflects changing conceptions of time in the eighteenth century. It is usually thought that the Gothic novel, temporally set in the middle ages or a distant past, evokes a more “vertical” notion of society in which the figure of the king functions as the apex of a hierarchical and God-given order rooted in a higher time. However, Radcliffe’s rational denoument, this paper argues, recovers the homogenous profane time of modernity from the mythic, confluent, or kairotic time of the Gothic. The analysis focus on the relationship between time consciousness and visibility as a metaphor of reason. As typical motifs of Gothic convention, darkness, isolation, and imprisonment in the Inquisition’s dungeon are quite prevalently used in The Italian. These motifs, which work to instigate terror in the Gothic novel, also have the characteristic of depriving the blindfolded protagonist of both the exterior light of visibility and the inner light of rational thinking ability. The loss of sight can lead the imprisoned protagonist to become subjected to a fearful delirium in a space that is disjointed from the present chronometric time. However, in The Italian, the space of the Inquisition is transformed into a space of true time and light as the Grand Inquisitor himself becomes the guarantor of justice and order. In a preposterous inversion, the Gothic becomes the arena in which the male protagonist is rescued into the modern realm of rationality and enlightened time.
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