Gothic stories within stories : frame narratives and realism in the genre, 1790-1900 / Clayton Carlyle Tarr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tarr, Clayton Carlyle, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gothic fiction (Literary genre), English--History and criticism.

Gothic fiction (Literary genre), English.

Physical Description:

v, 208 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, [2017]

Summary:

Frame narratives-stories within stories-are featured in nearly every canonical Gothic novel. Sometimes dismissed as a shopworn convention of the genre, frame narratives in fact function as a dynamic basis for imaginative variation and are vital to evaluating the diverse Gothic tradition. The juxtaposition between the everyday "frame world" of the story and the disturbing embedded narrative allows the monstrous to escape textual confines, forcing the reader to experience the reassurance of the ordinary alongside the horror of the uncanny. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 A "frame of uncommon size": Ann Radcliffe and the Sublime Real 21

2 Go Forth and Prosper: Mary Shelley's Monsters Unbound 45

3 Loose Ends: Melmoth the Wanderer and Confessions of a Justified Sinner 63

Interlude. The Fabric of Reality: Sartor Resartus 83

4 The "science of human brutality": Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 91

5 The "romantic side of familiar things": The Old Curiosity Shop and Bleak House 109

6 The Descent of Man: Jekyll and Hyde and Dracula 130.

ISBN:

9781476667485

1476667489

OCLC:

963358971