Abstract
AbstractIn spite of its gendered heritage, Ann Radcliffe was an early adopter of the chapter epigraph. She wrote her fiction with the interests of a growing female readership in mind, placing English (as opposed to Latin or Greek) epigraphs at the head of her chapters and quoting women alongside men. This article uses two of her novels, The Romance of the Forest (1791) and The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), to explore the concept of forgetting oneself and the role of the epigraph in correcting a feminine mode of reading associated with the Gothic novel. It argues for the epigraph as a conservative but democratic form, which allowed Radcliffe to stage issues of nationalism and gender politics, and reveals an ambivalence towards authority that is characteristic of Radcliffe's style and purpose.
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