{"title":"Melmoth and the Irish Gothic Tradition","authors":"Madeline Potter","doi":"10.3366/gothic.2024.0197","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the legacies of Melmoth, the title character of Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), in the context of the Irish Gothic tradition. I argue that Melmoth's corporeal monstrosity is symbolically reified in subsequent texts, and that consequently Irish Gothic fiction is both possessing of and possessed by Melmoth. Exploring this in-between space where Melmoth is re-fashioned and re-imagined, I ask what this means for the Irish Gothic tradition and the processes of reflection and self-reflection these texts enact. I therefore trace Melmoth's influence by surveying the works both of Anglo-Irish writers and of Irish Gothic writers outside this particular tradition. In particular, my argument examines tropes of doubling and mirroring in such texts so as to highlight Melmoth's presence as a symbolic and semiotic revenant.","PeriodicalId":42443,"journal":{"name":"Gothic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Gothic Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3366/gothic.2024.0197","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"N/A","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article explores the legacies of Melmoth, the title character of Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), in the context of the Irish Gothic tradition. I argue that Melmoth's corporeal monstrosity is symbolically reified in subsequent texts, and that consequently Irish Gothic fiction is both possessing of and possessed by Melmoth. Exploring this in-between space where Melmoth is re-fashioned and re-imagined, I ask what this means for the Irish Gothic tradition and the processes of reflection and self-reflection these texts enact. I therefore trace Melmoth's influence by surveying the works both of Anglo-Irish writers and of Irish Gothic writers outside this particular tradition. In particular, my argument examines tropes of doubling and mirroring in such texts so as to highlight Melmoth's presence as a symbolic and semiotic revenant.
本文探讨了查尔斯-马图林(Charles Maturin)的《流浪者梅尔摩斯》(Melmoth the Wanderer,1820 年)中的主人公梅尔摩斯在爱尔兰哥特式传统中的遗产。我认为,梅尔莫斯的肉体畸形在随后的文本中被象征性地重新整合,因此爱尔兰哥特小说既拥有梅尔莫斯,也被梅尔莫斯占有。在探索梅尔摩斯被重新塑造和重新想象的这一中间空间时,我想知道这对爱尔兰哥特式传统以及这些文本的反思和自我反思过程意味着什么。因此,我通过研究盎格鲁-爱尔兰作家和这一特定传统之外的爱尔兰哥特式作家的作品,追溯梅尔莫斯的影响。我的论点特别考察了这些文本中的双重性和镜像性,以突出梅尔摩斯作为象征性和符号性复仇者的存在。
期刊介绍:
The official journal of the International Gothic Association considers the field of Gothic studies from the eighteenth century to the present day. Gothic Studies opens a forum for dialogue and cultural criticism, and provides a specialist journal for scholars working in a field which is today taught or researched in academic institutions around the globe. The journal invites contributions from scholars working within any period of the Gothic; interdisciplinary scholarship is especially welcome, as are studies of works across the range of media, beyond the written word.