Dissertation

[anaka]

I think I may have found a topic. I thought of it a couple of days ago, and now I dreamed about it last night. It was a sucky dream, mind you, and not one I'd enjoy having again, but I think it rather means that my topic has legs. I think it's going to be the intersection between the Gothic and Things, particularly in terms of genre formulation

Comments

[anaka]

Well, a basic tenet of Thing Theory (depending on who you follow) is that human culture is made of up stuff, generally. We can't seem to do without it; it's a mark of human endeavor that there's an object left behind at the end of it. With that being said, there's a difference between an object we never notice and one we do, usually because we become aware of its qualities somehow (either through trying to use it for something it's not intended for, or because it breaks, or because it stands out for some reason -- you're never as aware of your keys as you are when you open a box with them, or can't find them, or they break).

So, once you have the idea of things (as well as thing-status not being permanent in an object by and large... it flickers in and out) and people using things, you can build on that and look at what things actually do for people (as opposed to useful objects). Bruno Latour has this concept called Actor-Network theory, in which he suggests that human and non-human entities (things) actually function as equals in social aspects, mediating human interactions by enforcing or guiding behavior based on their designs.

The most recent paper I wrote was on the role of things in Casanova's autobiography, and I ended up talking about how we use things in metaphor, things as objects to modify behavior, and things to navigate or erase social boundaries, particularly when it comes to gender and sexuality. So I've got this nifty sort of nexus between gender issues, things/semiotics, and 18th century work that I actually enjoyed the heck out of exploring.

So that brings us up to date.

If we take things not just as physical items but also as concepts... well, the Gothic is full of those concepts. It pretty much lives in metaphor on one level or another. A big metal helmet with a flowing red plume is never just a big metal helmet with a flowing red plume in a Gothic novel, after all. Also, some of the work I've done on Gothic looks at really examining the conventions of the genre, how they started and what they do and how they function across different books. Omnipresent houses, dungeons, suits of armor, orphans, swords, caves, dark sinister men, masks, skeletons, crypts... they all do things. More importantly, if they do things, according to ANT, they all mediate and implement the social somehow. Now, while one could look strictly at how these elements work in the texts... it seems to me more interesting to look at how they work on readers, and how this might play into the ongoing health of the modern Gothic along with its continued popularity. Even bad Gothic novels are popular, after all, if they're Gothic enough and pull on the right conventions at the right time.

I dunno, does that make any sense?