The move inward reflects fears such as the formation
of the police force, and then police incompetency and
a need for private detectives as crime in metropolitan
areas become large fears. This shift also suggests
that authors and readers come to terms with real-life
horror and use literature to try to cope with things
such as crime and the evil of humans rather than
sublimating their fears into literary creations.
The Gothic, then, moves from the outlines to the
city. This movement can be tracked by analysing the
anxieties expressed in literature of the time and the
mobility and transferability of the monstrous aspect of
the text. From The Castle of Otranto to Frankenstein
to Poe’s tales, the movement inwards toward the city,
toward the population, is evident. While some may
consider the detective within the interchangeable city
or the Urban Gothic to be new genres, their inherent
connection to the original Gothic wave of fiction
cannot be denied.
References
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Cassuto, L., 2017. “Urban American Gothic” in
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Shelley, M & Butler, Marilyn, 2008 [1818].
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