EDWARD GOREY's PLAY with GENERIC FORM by EDEN LEE LACKNER a Thesis Submitted to the Victoria University of Wellingt
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GENRE GAMES: EDWARD GOREY'S PLAY WITH GENERIC FORM BY EDEN LEE LACKNER A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Victoria University of Wellington 2015 Page 1 of 216 Page 2 of 216 ABSTRACT Genre Games: Edward Gorey's Play with Generic Form This thesis examines Edward Gorey's play with form and content across five literary genres, how that play results in the style that has come to be known as the "Goreyesque" and how the Goreyesque has influenced later artists and writers. Gorey consistently places style ahead of thematic and moral considerations, removing the purpose of each genre to reveal what remains in its absence. In doing so, Gorey maps out the boundaries of each form, providing genre- and period-specific details that act as signposts to how his audience should approach each narrative. With these markers in place, Gorey's readers are thus made aware of which genre expectations rule each piece. These expectations, however, are undermined as Gorey removes the audience-understood literary endgame, so that the work appears in all respects to be an accurate representation of the chosen genre, yet is missing the central heart. Gorey's melodramas present scenarios in which deep familial loss and suffering are at the forefront of each narrative, yet as a result of the distance that Gorey places between the text and his readers, these works ultimately lack sentimentality. His Dickensian narratives, while populated with virtuous orphans and embittered, isolated men, lack moral pronouncements and just rewards, resulting in exceptionally bleak, nihilistic endings that provide little or no social commentary. His children's literature, although full of mnemonic systems, rejects all pedagogical functions in favour of inviting in adult audiences to luxuriate in sound and linguistic form. His mystery and detective fiction, while containing secrets, crimes and criminals, ignores any pretence of decoding the central mysteries. His Gothic horror revels in supernatural excesses, yet engenders no fear. By tracing Gorey's play with genre, we can identify the aesthetic parameters of the Goreyesque, and examine how they manifest in the works of other artists and writers, notably Tim Burton, Neil Gaiman and Roman Dirge. In manipulating genre expectations, Gorey does more than simply leave readers with the shell of narrative purpose. Instead, he draws attention to the absence and pushes beyond expectation to reinvention. He normalizes the strange and fantastic by removing the very things that make the ordinary extraordinary. He infuses his works with a distance that shifts their purpose from generating high emotion and strong reactions to encouraging minute Page 3 of 216 attention to narrative detail. Gorey's fantasies therefore represent odd, underwhelming moments that are otherwise ignored in the search for the uncommon and unique. By underplaying the significance of the events in his stories, Gorey represents and refreshes our concepts of the fantastic, and highlights the strangeness in the overlooked. Page 4 of 216 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Anna Jackson and Dr. Jane Stafford, who have not only been instrumental in helping me shape my thesis and further develop my research skills, but who also always had an insightful word at the ready, and who helped this Canadian, so far from home, feel a little less alone. My thanks also to my exam committee for their thoughtful and insightful readings of my thesis and an exceptionally pleasant oral exam, and the School of English, Film, Theatre and Media Studies and Victoria University as a whole for their unflagging support, financial and otherwise, throughout my program. I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues in The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. They have been so supportive and warm throughout this entire process, from the moment I began attending the conference as a wide-eyed M.A. student, to my years as a wandering Independent Scholar, to the stress-filled, tear-filled, fear-filled Ph.D. years. Whether they offered a moment of kindness, a long-lasting friendship, or an exceptional academic opportunity, I am grateful for each and every one of them. No acknowledgment would be complete without thanking my parents, Mr. Conrad Peter Lackner and Dr. Sharron Lee Harper Lackner, for their unflagging support throughout my entire life. They are the ones who instilled the importance of a good education in me, and who have always encouraged me to follow my dreams, sharpen my skills, and keep a level head. My father taught me to plan for the future, all the while stressing the importance of being an outstanding student...even if that meant "out standing in the hall." My mother lead by example, going back to school while I was in elementary, and ultimately becoming the first person on her side of the family to hold a Ph.D. It is because of her that I believed I could attain the same heights, and also why I spent many of my formative years happily banging around the University of Calgary Sociology Department, sitting in on her classes after my own school was done for the day. This thesis is in her honour. I miss you every day, Mum. Page 5 of 216 Page 6 of 216 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................5 TABLE OF CONTENTS....................................................................................................7 CHAPTER ONE: EDWARD GOREY UNDER REVIEW.............................................9 CHAPTER TWO: HEARTLESS MELODRAMA........................................................29 CHAPTER THREE: DICKENSIAN DISCOURSE......................................................55 CHAPTER FOUR: PEDAGOGICAL NONSENSE......................................................81 CHAPTER FIVE: CLUELESS DETECTIVES...........................................................107 CHAPTER SIX: GOTHIC FURNISHINGS................................................................135 CHAPTER SEVEN: ODDLY INFLUENTIAL............................................................163 CHAPTER EIGHT: STRANGELY OVERLOOKED................................................189 WORKS CITED..............................................................................................................201 Page 7 of 216 Page 8 of 216 Chapter 1: Edward Gorey Under Review Edward Gorey (1925-2000), twentieth century American illustrator and writer, wrote over one hundred distinct narratives over the course of his career. He also illustrated the works of numerous other authors, including both interior illustrations and covers, and was involved in stage, costume and graphic design. Gorey's work employs obvious and exaggerated genre features, which figure into his consistent placement of style ahead of thematic and moral considerations. Where genres such as melodrama, detective fiction and horror adhere to particular predictable narrative patterns, conventional characters and reassuring moral conclusions, Gorey's texts remove or interrupt these patterns, present aberrant or anarchic characters, and withhold any moral outcomes. In doing so, Gorey maps out the boundaries of each genre, providing genre- and period-specific details that act as signposts to how his audience should approach each narrative. With these markers in place, Gorey's readers are thus made aware of which genre expectations rule each piece. These expectations, however, are undermined as Gorey removes any understood literary endgame – the work appears in all respects to be an accurate representation of the chosen genre, yet is missing the central, moral heart present in the nineteenth century genres on which he draws. His Dickensian narratives, while populated with virtuous orphans and embittered, isolated men, lack moral pronouncements or just rewards. His melodramas, despite representations of deep familial loss and suffering, are devoid of emotion and sentimentality. Regardless of the preponderance of supernatural violence, Gorey's Gothic horror tales engender no fear. His mystery and detective fiction, while containing secrets, crimes and criminals, ignore any pretence of decoding the central mysteries. His children's literature, although full of mnemonic systems, rejects all pedagogical functions. Instead, Gorey finds humour in tragedy, surreality and mundanity alike. This thesis will consider select texts from Gorey's larger collection of works in light of five distinct period-specific genres: melodrama, the Dickensian, children's literature, mystery and detective fiction, and Gothic horror. In each chapter, close examination of representative narratives informed by genre-specific research will delineate what tropes Gorey references and how his treatment of them highlights – and undermines – generic norms. It is this Goreyesque treatment of genre that produces the waning of affect, depthlessness, and the replacement of a sense of "history" with what Fredric Jameson calls a "historicism" closely Page 9 of 216 linked with pastiche. Already in the 1950s and 1960s, Gorey's work clearly fits the "cultural logic of late capitalism" first identified by Jameson in 1984. By considering Gorey's play with genre, we can develop a clearer sense of how his influence on other artists and writers manifests