Call for papers/proposals.
Italy and the Gothic. Special issue of Gothic Studies

Italy provided Gothic writers with a major source of inspiration.  Horace
Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Ann Radcliffe's The Italian, The Mysteries
of Udolpho and A Sicilian Romance, Charlotte Dacre's Zofloya and a host of
minor novels used Italian characters and settings so extensively that the
genre came to be entirely associated with Italy.  Italy is indeed central
in the definition of Gothic: a place of violence and passion, Italy is
inhabited by a feudal and despotic nobility and a degenerate Catholic
clergy, and its picturesque landscapes are disseminated with castles and
monasteries whose labyrinthine and claustrophobic architecture offer the
ideal physical and psychological setting of the novel's plots.

The editor would like to hear from perspective contributors to a special
issue of Gothic Studies on Italy and the Gothic.  We are interested in
papers on any aspect of the Italian influence on, and presence in, the
Gothic.  For the Gothic novelists, Italy was, first of all, a concrete,
real place, with very definite geographical, historical, cultural and
religious features.  Essay topics therefore include, but are not limited
to, the historical and political underpinnings of the writers' use of
violence in the Italian context; Italian art, architecture, and history;
the role of Catholicism; the use of Italian geography and landscape.  We
would also welcome contributions on less obvious aspects of the Italian
influence on the Gothic, for instance the Grand Tour, the picturesque, the
sublime.

The editor would also be interested in discussions on the Gothic writers'
use of Italy as a means to 'de-familiarize' the domestic context of Britain
and as a metaphorical space in which the narrative mapping of Italy hides
more domestic concerns.  The way Gothic writers employed Italy raises
questions concerning the sense of distance and opposition between Britain
and the Continent: the unruly historical features of the Middle Ages, the
irrational and violent nature of Italians, the superstitious tenets and
rites of Catholicism, Italy's scorching weather and intoxicating foods and
drinks were all parts of a cultural ethos placed by Gothic writers in
diametrical opposition to Britain's political, religious and moral
stability.  This often reflected the anxiety felt by writers for the threat
posed to Britain by hostile cultural systems, particularly during the years
of the French Revolution.

Please send proposals to: Massimiliano Demata, St Cross College, Oxford OX1
3LZ, England. Email: [log in to unmask]

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