Gothic Fiction and Ecofeminism

Abstract

Gothic fiction is frequently accused of reinforcing the very dualist structures ecofeminist theory seeks to undo. Central gothic motifs are rooted in a naturalization of gender boundaries, and so are many traditional scholarly approaches to the gothic, such as the well-known distinction between male gothic and female gothic, and horror and terror. Nonetheless, gothic fiction has much to offer to ecofeminist theorists. This chapter traces key texts of gothic literature through an ecofeminist lens, touching upon Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, Matthew G. Lewis’s The Monk, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, and finishing with an outlook toward the nascent genre of the ecogothic, as well as gothic writing for children. Based on theoretical constructs by Val Plumwood and Karen J. Warren, this chapter shows that gothic fiction indeed has immense transgressive potential, but in spite of this often retells narratives that uphold essentialist natural/unnatural paradigms and strict gender boundaries, most centrally a stark woman–nature bond standing diametrically opposed to a masculinate human culture.