Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Failed Rites of Passage in Early Gothic Fiction

Failed Rites of Passage in Early Gothic Fiction

Oppolzer, Markus

Hardcover

Series: Salzburg Studies in English Literature and Culture Sel & C, Book 6

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 3631611358
ISBN13: 9783631611357
Publisher: Peter Lang D
Published: Apr 13 2011
Pages: 296
Weight: 1.13
Height: 0.69 Width: 5.83 Depth: 8.27
Language: English
This study applies Victor Turner's theory of liminality to an examination of early British Gothic fiction and its cultural context. Contrary to the widespread belief that the Gothic is escapist in nature, a close reading of novels such as William Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) or Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) reveals that they actively engage with socio-political and educational debates of the time. Using the licence of fantastic literature, the Gothic sets up social experiments in which young, inexperienced protagonists have to face a variety of institutions. Under what circumstances are they willing to submit to these social orders? Why are rites of passage often bound to fail? These are questions consistently raised in this genre and explored in this study with reference to a wide range of political, legal, and educational treatises of the eighteenth century.

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