Haunting Modernity and the Gothic Presence in British Modernist Literature

This book explores the complex relationship between British modernism and the Gothic tradition over several centuries of modern literary and cultural history. Illuminating the blind spots of Gothic criticism and expanding the range of cultural material that falls under the banner of this tradition, Daniel Darvay focuses on how late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British writers transform the artifice of Gothic ruins into building blocks for a distinctively modernist architecture of questions, concerns, images, and arguments. To make this argument, Darvay takes readers back to early exemplars of the genre thematically rooted in the English Reformation, tracing it through significant Victorian transformations to finally the modernist period. Through writers such as Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, and D. H. Lawrence, this book ultimately expands the boundaries of the Gothic genre and provides a fresh, new approach to better understanding the modernist movement. Preface 6 Notes 8 Acknowledgments 10 Contents 12 Chapter 1: Introduction: Catholicism, Sacrilege, and the Modern Gothic 13 Sacrilege and the Origins of Gothic 13 Catholicism and the Politics of Gothic 21 Modernism and the Paradox of Gothic 30 Notes 39 chapter 2: Labyrinths of Reason from Augustine to Wilde 47 Skepticism and the Gothic Legacy of the English Reformation 47 Gothic Labyrinths from Augustine to Descartes 53 Lost in the Labyrinth: Martyrs, Saints, and Ritualists 59 Conquering the Labyrinth: Wilde and the Dark Legacy of Catholicism 66 Notes 76 Chapter 3: Specters of Conrad: Espionage and the Modern West 82 Gothic Spies and the Spectacle of Modern Society 82 The Politics of Conrad’s Gothic Imagination 88 Gothic Russia Under Conrad’s Polish Eyes 91 Englishness and Remapping the West 96 Notes 100 Chapter 4: The Haunted Museum: E.M. Forster, Italy, and the Grand Tour 108 Gothic Italy and the Grand Tour 108 Modern Englishness and the Cultural Legacy of the Grand Tour 115 Forster’s Provincial Cosmopolitanism 124 Notes 132 Chapter 5: Detectives of the Mind: Virginia Woolf and the Gothic Sublime 141 Sensation Fiction and the Gothic Sublime 141 Modernism and the Abyss of Representation 148 Detectives of Consciousness 154 Notes 161 Chapter 6: Dark Vibes: D.H. Lawrence and Occult Electricity 169 Electricity and Gothic Culture 169 Lawrence, Electricity, and the Gothic Body 178 Spiritualism and Theosophy from Blavatsky to Lawrence 184 Notes 192 Chapter 7: Conclusion 197 Notes 200 Bibliography 201 Index 220 "This book explores the complex relationship between British modernism and the Gothic tradition over several centuries of modern literary and cultural history. Illuminating the blind spots of Gothic criticism and expanding the range of cultural material that falls under the banner of this tradition, Daniel Darvay focuses on how late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British writers transform the artifice of Gothic ruins into building blocks for a distinctively modernist architecture of questions, concerns, images, and arguments. To make this argument, Darvay takes readers back to early exemplars of the genre thematically rooted in the English Reformation, tracing it through significant Victorian transformations to finally the modernist period. Through writers such as Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, and D.H. Lawrence, this book ultimately expands the boundaries of the Gothic genre and provides a fresh, new approach to better understanding the modernist movement."--Font no determinada This work explores the complex relationship between British modernism and the Gothic tradition over several centuries of modern literary and cultural history. Illuminating the blind spots of Gothic criticism and expanding the range of cultural material that falls under the banner of this tradition, Daniel Darvay focuses on how late 19th and early 20th century British writers transform the artifice of Gothic ruins into building blocks for a distinctively modernist architecture of questions, concerns, images, and arguments Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction: Catholicism, Sacrilege, and the Modern Gothic....Pages 1-34 Labyrinths of Reason from Augustine to Wilde....Pages 35-69 Specters of Conrad: Espionage and the Modern West....Pages 71-96 The Haunted Museum: E.M. Forster, Italy, and the Grand Tour....Pages 97-129 Detectives of the Mind: Virginia Woolf and the Gothic Sublime....Pages 131-158 Dark Vibes: D.H. Lawrence and Occult Electricity....Pages 159-186 Conclusion....Pages 187-190 Back Matter....Pages 191-218 Daniel Darvay. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 191-209) And Index.