The Gothic sublime : a study of the changing function of sublimity in representations of subjectivity in nineteenth-century fantasy fiction

Abstract

This thesis examines how certain Gothic fictions of the nineteenth century draw upon and critique philosophical versions of the sublime. My argument is that sublimity is transformed into a nascent psychology in Gothic fiction which is similar to, but can be used to criticise, a Freudian psychoanalytical account. I view Freud's version of the subject as dependent upon some of the features of the sublime such as self/object distinctions, and the significance which is attached to non-rational moments. It is because the Gothic critiques sublimity that it also critically reads Freudian psychoanalysis avent la lettré; it therefore has a distinct theoretical space similar to, but different from, philosophical notions of the sublime and Freud's formulation of the psyche. This thesis explores the development of the Gothic's handing of the sublime from early naturalistic to later urban versions, culminating in this reassessment of Freud.

Theorists of the sublime are, Longinus, Addison, Burke, Schiller and Kant, with the principal focus being upon the work of Burke and Kant. The Gothic writers explored are, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and Bram Stoker. (DX184009)

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