Domestic Gothic: Genre and Nation in Charlotte Smith's The Old Manor House

Abstract

Abstract‘The Gothic novel’ is by no means a coherent entity, but it has its genesis in a turn to an imagined past. In considering late 18th‐century Gothic fiction, the impact of the broader historico‐political discourse surrounding the Gothic should be taken into account. Understanding this as a diverse and contested genre preoccupied with national history refocuses attention on a range of texts that are usually considered atypical of the Gothic, and turns a spotlight on novels that use Gothic tropes in domestic, British settings. It creates an especially rewarding approach to the fiction of Charlotte Smith, in which Gothic imagery is used to explore superstition, heritage and oppression in contemporary Britain. This article focuses on The Old Manor House (1793), arguing that to define the Gothic primarily in relation to Ann Radcliffe's novels of terror is to elide the other implications of the genre's key images, language and themes. In this novel, Smith uses several manifestations of the Gothic to create a sustained exploration of history and romance, of the mythmaking process that goes into the creation of personal and national identity, and to interrogate political systems of property and power.