Sometimes a Dungeon is Just a Dungeon: Tyranny and the Centrality of the Villain in Ann Radcliffe's ;;A Sicilian Romance;;

[摘要] The goal of this paper on Ann Radcliffe;;s Gothic novel, A Sicilian Romance (1794) is to discover the central mythemic relation which serves as the continual axis of narrative motivation throughout the narrative. In an effort to recover something universal, a mytheme, from the novel, I reduce it to its most basic functional components. Following a structural analytic comparison of A Sicilian Romance with the morphology of the folktale as described by Vladimir Propp, it becomes apparent that, not unlike the folk tale, the entire narrative hinges upon incessant acts of villainy being perpetrated against paradigmatic heroes (or victim-heroes) who suffer from some sort of ;;lack.;; A deeper study of the specific type of villainy which appears in the novel reveals that it is of a political variety and possessed of juridical authority: it is malevolent tyranny. Comparisons with traditional representations of tyranny from classical and philosophic literature help to show that Radcliffe had a very distinct understanding of how a villainy that is genuinely tyrannical might be represented in literature, and it seems also that she recognized that the form of the Gothic novel was especially adapted for such a representation. Supporting discussion within the thesis includes a technical exposition of the semiotic structuring of the victim-hero function essential to establishing themonolithic presence of the villain-tyrant function. A coda at the end of the paper explores the interdisciplinary intention of the paper.

[发布机构] University of Wisconsin

[效力级别] Ann Ward

[关键词] Radcliffe;Ann Ward;1764-1823. Sicilian romance;Radcliffe;Ann Ward;1764-1823--Characters--Villains;Gothic Revival (Literature)--History and criticism;Villains in literature;Despotism in literature