Monsters of History: Tyranny, Torture and the Gothic

Crofts, Matthew Ray

Abstract

The Gothic tyrant is a figure that not only plays a vital role in generating fear and manipulating the balance of power in Gothic fiction, but one that has survived throughout the mode’s changing form. It is tyranny that frequently turns Gothic tales into narratives of oppression, persecution and torture; the violent excesses the mode has become known for. History, too, can be monstrous. It acts as a repository for dark practices, barbarity, and the fears of the present. Historical forces reshape the popular understanding of what a tyrant is, and what forms of cruelty are possible. Just as Horace Walpole, when writing The Castle of Otranto (1764), was attempting an impersonation of a type of romance so outdated and barbaric it came to be called ‘Gothic’, historical analogues call to the reader’s mind genuine horrors of the past. The figure of the Gothic tyrant and the appropriation of historical periods and fears have worked in tandem throughout the continuum of the Gothic mode contributing to its mutation into other genres and forms of media. This thesis examines the Gothic tyrant across a backdrop of five historical backgrounds: the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution, Imperial expansion, the perseverance of Orientalism in the twentieth century and finally into the imaginative wastelands created after the Cold War. This thesis demonstrates how tyranny supports the essential functions of the Gothic mode, how the figure of the tyrant responds to historical stimulus, drawing parallels between tyrants of different eras, and emphasising how the re-enactment of historical excesses of violence, such as torture, are performances of tyranny. The Gothic tyrant is far from an incidental feature; such figures fulfil an essential role in maintaining and updating the Gothic mode, preserving its historical influences and performing the balance of pain and power that enables the Burkean sublime.

Citation

Crofts, M. R. Monsters of History: Tyranny, Torture and the Gothic. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4739178

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jul 18, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 18, 2024
• Keywords: English
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4739178
• Additional Information: Department of English; University of Hull
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2019