Ambiguity of American Gothic Fiction
Julie Fallows 6423747
Sean Moreland
November 27, 2012
Ambiguity of American Gothic Anxieties
Since the 19h century, American Gothic fiction started to exist independently from the British type. In fact, the latter was marked by its use of fantastic, externalized and metaphysical elements as opposed to the boundaries of American Gothic fiction in which were expressed by historical, internalized, racial and psychological characteristics. (Edwards, XVII) In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-tale heart and The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and in Charles Broken Brown’s Edgar Huntly expresses a transformation of certain gothic conventions to an American setting which are the result of 19th century anxieties. This change was adapted to the cultural and psychological anxieties of that time, which were the ambiguity of the integration of miscegenation of African Americans and Native Americans, the fear of the wilderness and of the unknown and the suggestion of an apocalypse or failure of the American dream. The rhetorical and gothic discourse advocates these concerns subliminally and defines American Gothic literature to that of the British.
The stress of that period is well reflected in Poe’s Gothic tales as racist constructions are represented to depict the common social projections towards African Americans of the 19th century. Therefore, many authors’, namely Poe, would integrate the ideologies of American culture within their tales. “Nineteenth-century racial theories were significant in that it justified slavery within a nation that proclaimed the equality of all men.” (Edward 7) For instance, in Poe’s tale The Raven, there are colors of black and white in which depicted racial ambiguity towards the social integration of African Americans. (Edwards, 111) The rhetoric of the Raven advocates the definition of dark words as malevolent and lighter ones as good: such as “Bleak December,” “dying ember,” “angels” and “ebony
Sean Moreland
November 27, 2012
Ambiguity of American Gothic Anxieties
Since the 19h century, American Gothic fiction started to exist independently from the British type. In fact, the latter was marked by its use of fantastic, externalized and metaphysical elements as opposed to the boundaries of American Gothic fiction in which were expressed by historical, internalized, racial and psychological characteristics. (Edwards, XVII) In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-tale heart and The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and in Charles Broken Brown’s Edgar Huntly expresses a transformation of certain gothic conventions to an American setting which are the result of 19th century anxieties. This change was adapted to the cultural and psychological anxieties of that time, which were the ambiguity of the integration of miscegenation of African Americans and Native Americans, the fear of the wilderness and of the unknown and the suggestion of an apocalypse or failure of the American dream. The rhetorical and gothic discourse advocates these concerns subliminally and defines American Gothic literature to that of the British.
The stress of that period is well reflected in Poe’s Gothic tales as racist constructions are represented to depict the common social projections towards African Americans of the 19th century. Therefore, many authors’, namely Poe, would integrate the ideologies of American culture within their tales. “Nineteenth-century racial theories were significant in that it justified slavery within a nation that proclaimed the equality of all men.” (Edward 7) For instance, in Poe’s tale The Raven, there are colors of black and white in which depicted racial ambiguity towards the social integration of African Americans. (Edwards, 111) The rhetoric of the Raven advocates the definition of dark words as malevolent and lighter ones as good: such as “Bleak December,” “dying ember,” “angels” and “ebony
Cited: Brown, Charles Brocken. Edgar Huntly or Memoirs of a Sleep Walker. Philadelphia: New Haven, Conn : College & University Press, 1973, Print. Crow, L. Charles. “Fear, Ambiguity, and Transgression: The gothic Novel in the United States” A Companion to The American Novel. Oxford. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2012, Web. November 25 2012. Edwards, Justin D. Gothic Passages: Racial Ambiguity and the American Gothic. University of Iowa Press, 2003, Print. Lloyd-Smith, Allan. Amercian Gothic Fiction. New York, books.google.ca, The Continuum International, 2004. Web. Nov 25 2012. Monnet, Agnieszka Soltysik. The poetic and Politics of the American Gothic. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2010, Print. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” “The tell-tale heart” “The Raven” Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Nina Baym. New York: W.W Norton Compagny, 689-701. 2008. Print. Poe, Edgar Allan. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Ontario: Broadview editions, 2012, Print.