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English Literature | Vol. 7 | December 2020

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Research Article

The Supernatural Subject of the Sublime in Burke and Radcliffe: A Reading of The Mysteries of Udolpho

Zak Watson    Missouri Southern State University, USA    

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abstract

The article aims to explore how the supernatural is represented in Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), arguing that it reflects Radcliffe’s ideas on the matter, described in her theoretical work On the Supernatural in Poetry (1826). Following Walter Scott’s representation of Radcliffe in his work Lives of the Novelists (1825), her works have been associated with the concept of the explained supernatural. The articles argues that the supernatural present in The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) complicates the subjective safety implied by the explained supernatural, a complication visible in the novel’s narrative closure.

Published
Dec. 21, 2020
Accepted
Dec. 12, 2020
Submitted
Sept. 30, 2020
Language
EN

Keywords: Edmund Burke • The Mysteries of Udolpho • Gothic novel • The Sublime • Ann Radcliffe • Narrative • Supernatural • Empiricism

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2020/01/002

Copyright: © 2020 Zak Watson. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.