Gormenghast and the gothic edifice : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature at Massey University

Abstract

The Gothic genre is most commonly defined according to a diverse range of character types, themes, and devices of plot, mood, and setting, and this diffusion has made its application as a unified description a contentious one. This thesis develops a cohesive vocabulary for describing Gothic literature, and applies that vocabulary to a series of novels whose categorization has proven controversial, due to the ambiguities of the popular perception of the Gothic genre. Derived from a close reading of four iconic Gothic texts - Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" - and from various perspectives of Gothic criticism I argue that the archetypal setting of Gothic works, the edifice, plays a central role in Gothic literature through its role in creating the fundamental Gothic properties of verticality, interiority, and pastness. I then argue that Peake's Gormenghast series - comprising Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone - demonstrates in the first two novels this centrality of the edifice to Gothic literature and in the third novel the fact that the physical edifice is not a compulsory component of Gothic literature, but rather acts solely as the most effective expression of the underlying Gothic properties and the point whereby they interrelate. Furthermore, I demonstrate that these properties are applicable not only to the works of the genre itself, but to the critical perspectives that are used to explain it.