The love of all things creepy - how women were the early Goths
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Version 0 of 1. Death. Terror. Darkness. Pain. These are not topics we would automatically associate with gentile 18th-century women. Yet a new exhibition - Terror and Wonder: A Gothic Imagination, at the British Library - demonstrates dramatically that these were the precise subjects ladies loved to read - and write - about. Indeed, if it had not been for early 19th century women’s fascination with Gothic literature we might never have had Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wicker Man, or, ultimately, Twilight. Terror and Wonder explores the history of Gothic literature in Britain and features manuscripts of classics such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; original illustrations for Bram Stoker’s Dracula; a vampire fighting kit; a number of clips from Gothic films - the excerpt from The Innocents is particularly creepy - and examples of books and films that take us right into the 21st century. What fascinates is the discovery that women played such a significant role in the development and promotion of the genre. The first Gothic novel, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, was published in 1764 but its real “golden age” began in the 1790s and lasted until the mid-1800s. And it was during this period that women really made their mark. Ann Radcliffe was an early pioneer. Her works, such as The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian, feature powerful descriptions of dramatic landscapes, dark shadows and gloomy castles. She was followed by Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Shelley believed a good Gothic novel should “curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart”. Frankenstein certainly does that while also touching on themes that include the manipulation of power and the dangerous pursuit of knowledge. And then, in 1862, Lady Audley’s Secret, written by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, subverted the convention of ugly and sinister-looking villains with her angelic-looking, yet manipulative and deadly, Lady Audley. These works were crucial in the development of Gothic literature. These writers were also writing for a wide female audience, it should also be noted. The exhibition includes first editions whose inscriptions reveal they were mainly gifts from women to women. Jane Austen’s 1817 novel Northanger Abbey is an excellent insight into the time. The main character Catherine Morland is addicted to Gothic works, saying she could read Radcliffe’s Udolpho over and over again, and is delighted when her friend Isabella Thorpe suggests to her a number of books to read - after she has confirmed that they “are all horrid”. By contrast, men at the time claimed women were the “imaginative” sex while they saw themselves as rational beings who need not bother with the flights of fancy found in Gothic novels. But by the late 19th century, men were finding the genre more credible. Charles Dickens used Gothic imagery to highlight the plight of the poor, shifting the characters from creepy castles to grim urban settings in works such as Bleak House while Bram Stoker’s Dracula acted as a warning about wanton women. Stoker’s character of Lucy Westenra is seen as a sexual predator, her sensuality making her easy prey for Count Dracula. In the 20th century, women were generally confined to the status of virginal heroines in need of rescuing by resourceful heroes. Thankfully, towards the end of the exhibition we find women being restored to more central roles: Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves shows the power female sexuality, we see Neil Gaiman’s brave heroine Coraline - and even Twilight depicts women in a strong light. The female of the species is just as scary as the male, in other words. Terror and Wonder: A Gothic Imagination, 3rd October to 20th January at the British Library. @annamckie |