University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Dissertations 2020 REORIENTING THE FEMALE GOTHIC: CURIOSITY AND THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE Jenna Guitar University of Rhode Island, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss Recommended Citation Guitar, Jenna, "REORIENTING THE FEMALE GOTHIC: CURIOSITY AND THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE" (2020). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 1145. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/1145 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REORIENTING THE FEMALE GOTHIC: CURIOSITY AND THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE BY JENNA GUITAR A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2020 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION OF JENNA GUITAR APPROVED: Dissertation Committee: Major Professor Jean Walton Christine Mok Justin Wyatt Nasser H. Zawia DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2020 ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the mode of the Female Gothic primarily by examining how texts utilize the role of curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge, paying close attention to how female characters employ these attributes. Existing criticism is vital to understanding the Female Gothic and in presenting the genealogy of feminist literary criticism, and yet I argue, this body of criticism often produces elements of essentialism. In an attempt to avoid and expose the biases that essentialism produces, I draw from Sara Ahmed’s theory of queer phenomenology to investigate the connections between the way that women pursue and circulate knowledge through education and reading and writing practices in the Female Gothic. What women are allowed access to these practices, and what women are denied access? I argue that curiosity positions characters towards objects of knowledge in a positive and active way. I trace the trajectory of the Female Gothic beginning with Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho. I also examine the following novels: Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches, Octavia Butler’s Fledgling, and Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing is Monsters. I end the dissertation by examining the Female Gothic’s impact on the pop cultural imagination by analyzing the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its surrounding transmedial texts, such as the comics published by Dark Horse and Boom, and the podcast Buffering the Vampire Slayer. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Curiosity fuels so much of academic life. Mentors, peers, friends, and family stoke the ideas that fuel our curiosity. I would like to extend a special thanks to my major professor Jean Walton. Her helpful suggestions, invigorating questions, and stimulating conversations were invaluable in this process. Additionally, I would like to thank Christine Mok for her enthusiastic queries and for jumping into my committee in the eleventh hour without hesitation. Thank you to Justin Wyatt for his thoughtful mentorship and guidance through my interest in film and media studies. I would also like to thank my outside committee members David Faflik and Rebecca Romanow for their spirited conversations and positive presences. Additionally, I would like to thank Michelle Caraccia for her endless assistance, support, and guidance through the bureaucratic maze of forms. I would also like to thank the Gender and Women’s Studies department and especially Rosaria Pisa for her mentorship. Special thanks goes out to the URI English writing group members (especially Barbara Farnworth, Ashton Foley-Schramm, Elizabeth Foulke, Molly Hall, Serap Hidir, Heather Macpherson, Danielle Sanfilippo, and Catherine Winters) who have tirelessly provided feedback at varying stages of the process. I thank the writing group members for their comradery, compassion, and all of the laughter. Furthermore, I would like to extend a special thanks to former professors of mine from New Mexico State University who irrevocably changed and influenced my life for good. Sarah Hagelin, Harriet Linkin, Liz Schirmer, and Andrew Wiget introduced me to the world of literary studies, and saved my life in more ways than they will ever iii know. Thank you all for your spirited teaching and the lessons that you all etched on my soul forever. Appreciation goes out to a small corner of the internet that makes up the Buffering the Vampire Slayer community—the kindest and most compassionate place on the internet. Thank you to Jenny Owen Youngs and Kristin Russo for being the driving forces behind the most incredible online community I have ever witnessed. I must extend my heartfelt gratitude to a special group of women who provide the distinctive kind of support that only lifelong friends can deliver. Thank you to my banshees (Erin Barrio, Natalie Davis, Mandy Guitar, Liz Haebe, and Meagan Higgins) for all the strength, laughter, and unconditional love. Our reunions provide me with an emotional sustenance that feeds my soul in the long stretches between our next inevitable adventures. Life is simply better with banshees by your side. Next, I would like to thank my family, without them, none of this would have been possible. To my mother Kathleen Guitar, the woman who taught me how to love books, and read to me every night until I got old enough to read to her every night. There are not enough words in the world to express my gratitude to the woman who has always shown me how to be strong and persevere, while never forgetting to relish in the beauty and joy of life. To my father Hunt Guitar, who also helped ignite my love of literature, and journeyed with me to Middle Earth for the first time—to the man who spent countless hours taking me on walks on the New Mexico State University campus. We would talk about my future, my hopes and dreams, all while instilling in me the power of education, and how to revel in the beauty of a college campus. To my sister Mandy Guitar, whose constant support and FaceTime chats have iv been lifesaving. I am so grateful that we were both on this PhD track at the same time. It was beyond affirming to have someone going through a similar journey with which to share in the wide range of emotions, obstacles, and successes we must process. To my husband Mike DerrGuitar, our entire marriage has revolved around graduate school. Thank you for being so selfless and endlessly supportive of my wildest dreams and aspirations. Thank you for being my stability and my rock in an unstable and tumultuous time. You are always the thing I cannot wait to come home to after a mind boggling long day. I do not think there are enough thank yous in the world to encapsulate my immense gratitude for all that you have done in these past years. I love you goat! And last but certainly not least, I must thank my two fantastic felines, Crookshanks and Moo—the best reading and writing companions a woman could ever ask for. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................ iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................. vi INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 Mapping the Discourse of the Female Gothic ....................................... 20 CHAPTER 2 Jane Eyre’s Heirs and the Literary Genealogy of the Female Gothic ... 60 CHAPTER 3 Reorienting the Female Gothic in 21st Century Literature…………...106 CHAPTER 4 Buffy Slays the Female Gothic Tradition: Curiosity and the Pursuit of Knowledge in a Transmedia Landscape ……………………………………150 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................... 190 vi INTRODUCTION “Curiouser, and curiouser!” –Lewis Carroll “Curiosity is the most fleeting of pleasures; the moment it is satisfied, it ceases to exist and it always proves very, very expensive.” –Angela Carter “[Buffy attempts to find out the secret ingredient of Doublemeat burgers.] Buffy: Sorry, I was just curious. Manny the Manager: Curiosity killed the cat. Buffy: [whispers] Theory number 5: cat burgers.” –Jane Espenson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, S6 E12 Curiosity is disruptive, uncontrollable, unruly, impulsive, and meandering. Some of the oldest stories in the world serve as warnings or rebukes against the dangers of curiosity. Pandora’s curiosity unleashes countless ills upon society, while Eve’s curiosity causes the fall of humankind. And yet, curiosity is the impetus for the greatest discoveries in our world. If people did not have the drive, the desire to know, would we have ever evolved into the creatures we are now? In our present moment, when the answer to many questions is at the tip of our fingers in the shape of a smart phone, are we more curious than ever before or are we in the period of the “Great Stagnation” as Tyler Cowen a professor of economics at George Mason University in Virginia has called our contemporary moment. Cowen argues that it is harder now to raise