The Maternal Gaze in the Gothic

This monograph is an original project which plots the trajectory of the maternal gaze as a convention in the Gothic. It offers new directions for Gothic studies by exposing and challenging a critical and cultural myopia towards the capabilities of maternal desire, and in doing so engages with a range of texts from the Romantic to contemporary literary and visual cultures to locate a tyrannical maternal gaze in the genre. Compelling a seismic shift in the perception of the genre as the embodiment of patriarchy and the sexually violent male gaze, this is a new and unexplored area of both the Gothic and criticism of the genre, which has historically privileged the Oedipal paternal tyrant/female victim dynamic established in the Romantic Gothics of Walpole and Radcliffe. The monograph fills significant gaps in the Gothic academic publishing market. It is the first overview of the maternal gaze in the Gothic, it offers in-depth studies of previously neglected authors and their works, and it fundamentally changes how we see the Gothic mother/figure and child, both as a single entity and discrete tropes. The Maternal Gaze in the Gothic examines how articulations of maternal visual tyrannies in the Gothic, including kidnapping, incarcerating, gaslighting and hurting and killing the child under the guises of protection, concern and sacrifice so the mother can ‘look after’ them, are ignored by both the Gothic critical heritage, which understands tyranny in the genre as originating from male and paternal characters and recognises Female Gothic as a mode of female agency but not an abusive or infanticidal one, and also feminist gaze theory which similarly sees female spectatorship as reclaiming autonomy over the female body and its role as spectator yet is reluctant to acknowledge the ambivalent and abusive facets of the maternal gaze. Sara Williams is an independent scholar in the field of English Literature with an emphasis on Gothic literature and film. Her research focuses on relationships between trauma, voyeurism and consumption in the maternal Gothic and she has published a variety of reviews, articles, chapters and a critical edition. She is currently co-editing a collection The Crazy Cat Lady and the Gothic.