Illness and Disability as Gothic Monstrosity: Anxious Representations
of Physical Difference (Essay Collection)

The Gothic is marked by an anxious encounter with otherness, typically
represented in supernatural terms. The papers in this collection will
consider moments in which Gothic fear and horror is relocated onto
people who suffer illness or disability, who manifest physical or
mental difference. The trope that anchors this collection –the
construction of the subject of physical or mental illness or disability
as the Gothic monster – is like the Gothic mode in which it appears,
powerful and pervasive indeed. The mentally ill Bertha Rochester in
Jane Eyre, the albino Frances Davey of Jamaica Inn and the infertile
Rebecca reveal the horror of illness and disability that lurks at the
center of the Gothic tradition. Papers will be relatively short
(approximately 15 pp) and will focus on manifestations of this trope in
canonical or noncanonical works - papers on printed texts and films are
welcome.

Please send proposal of approximately 3 pages and vita by 3/1/06 to:
Ruth Anolik
ruth.anolik_at_villanova.edu
 

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Received on Sun Jul 24 2005 - 16:35:38 EDT