Juvenilia ✔/ a Nonfiction Undergraduate University Collection

Setting Through the Lens of Carnivalesque and Gothic Fiction

ENGLISH 3725

The Gothic Imagination

July 1st, 2021

Setting Through the Lens of Carnivalesque and Gothic Fiction

Gothic narratives use Carnivalesque themes to set up expectations for the fate of the characters through depictions of gloomy castles, mazes, and ruins.

Using The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, as a case study—being the first novel of the gothic genre—the setting is conveyed through the blending of carnivalesque, symbolism, and foreshadowing to subvert expectations and to provide insight into the ultimate fate of the characters through their interactions with their surroundings.

The place and space is an integral part of the gothic novel as it has to ground improbable events into plausibility. The setting has to match the tone of the events, and, as such, with dark themes there must be a dark setting.

Through methods of characterization, seen in the setting personified and through Manfred, foreshadowing, seen through prophecy and metonymy, symbolism, and connotative association with mythology and legends as well as the introduction of the supernatural world, The Castle of Otranto subverts expectations and disrupts social order, but in the end, is restored to the rightful heir and is purified.

All of these aspects, in combination with the characteristics of Carnivalesque, informs the plot and moves the plot along to reach the foreshadowed, bittersweet denouement.

Carnivalesque is a literary theory coined by Mikhail Bakhtin, and the most essential premise is the temporary, sanctioned inversion of tradition and societal standards.

There are four categories that a piece must satisfy to be considered carnivalesque according to the theory: 1) familiar and free interaction between people, 2) eccentric behaviour, 3) carnivalistic mésalliances, and 4) profanation ("Carnivalesque").

Further characteristics following in the grain of the subversion of order include temporarily sanctioned debauchery either by government system or church, themes concerning self-indulgence of the masses, the dissolving of social structure, and the relation of the events described taking place in public. The characters most tightly wound are the ones that will come utterly undone.

There is usually a great deal of satire, humour, or even parody, with characters that embrace and even encourage the strange, different, and ugly. The tone of carnival can vary as it is, by nature, dualistic and paradoxical; you cannot have order without disorder nor have debauchery without restraint.

Carnivalesque, in its theory, is seen as black or white; thematically, a piece is either normal or carnivalesque. However, carnivalesque should truly be on a spectrum instead, as gothic fiction seems to be the polar opposite to carnivalesque, not normalcy. Normalcy is the centre point from which each side deviates.

The depiction of the castle and maze contribute to the understanding of the novel on the whole and is enhanced when taken in combination with understandings of carnivalesque.

Gothic fiction is a form of literature that focuses on dark and picturesque scenery, shocking themes / darker aspects of human nature, melodramatic narratives, and uses a tone of intrigue, terror, and dread.

Plot wise, there is a certain sense of form that the genre seems to follow: a large, ancient house with skeletons in the closet, a forbidden romance, a tyrannical and/or predatory male who seeks out the damsel in distress, and a hero who runs the risk of not being able to save the damsel from the villain's clutches.

Although not apparent in a broad sense, gothic fiction has a great deal in common with carnivalesque. Some important characteristics of gothic fiction include forbidden and hidden debauchery, themes concerning the self-indulgence of the individual, the dissolving of the ancient house, and events taking place within the private sphere of life. The strange and different are shunned, the beautiful are made ugly, and there is an intense focus on endings rather than on beginnings. These are the exact inverse of the terms set out by Bakhtin's theory on carnivalesque.