Literature: Ann Radcliffe to Jane Austen - Female Gothic and Literary Homage

This course will provide the opportunity of bringing together two novels that are connected in the minds of many readers. Jane Austen’s heroine, Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey, is very fond of reading gothic novels and one novel that she is particularly captivated by is Ann Radcliffe’s 1794 novel The Myseries of Udolpho. In Northanger Abbey Austen provides a gentle, satirical look at the power of gothic fiction and the dangers of young girls wanting their lives to mirror the lives of a gothic heroine.

We will start the course, then, with a study of the source text that engages Catherine Morland so and spend the first few weeks looking at The Mysteries of Udolpho before moving on to Northanger Abbey. By considering the two texts we will be able to appreciate not only how good the gothic writing of Radcliffe is but also better appreciate the wit and humour that Austen provides in her novel. We will also gain a better knowledge of just how much Austen understood the workings of gothic fiction. The satire is aimed more at the undiscerning reader rather than gothic fiction itself. In order to write Northanger Abbey it is clear that Austen understood the genre of gothic fiction very well and could see exactly how it worked in order to capture the imaginations of its readers.