Critical Response Blog 2 (initial post due Thursday, 9/8 by 11:59 pm, comments due Friday, 9/9 by 11:59 pm)
Review the excerpts from Queer Gothic by George Haggerty that were included in the British Gothic Literature lecture. If you are unfamiliar with any of the language used in the quotes, do some research! Look up words in the dictionary, do a Google search, or even…come to my office hours and ask! Be sure to review the instructions for how to post. Then answer the following questions in a blog post of at least 250 words:
- Haggerty writes, “I attempt to show the ways in which all normative—heteronormative, if you will—configurations of human interaction are insistently challenged and in some cases significantly undermined in these fictions” (Haggerty 3).
- What do you think he means by “normative … configurations of human interaction?” What are some instances in which these configurations are challenged in Otranto?
- Later, Haggerty claims that Walpole “combines the sexual anxiety of a victimized female, the incestuous desire of a libidinous male, the use of the actual physical features of the castle to represent political and sexual entrapment, and an atmosphere deftly rendered to produce terror and gloom” (Haggerty 22).
- Locate a specific passage in The Castle of Otranto that embodies one or more of the characteristics he lists in this quote. Include a summary of the passage and a detailed explanation of how the passage creates the effect.
- How do you think physical features of a castle represent political and sexual entrapment?
- What are some contemporary examples of fiction or media that create the effects listed here as “hallmarks of gothic fiction?”
