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Internal Focalization and Restriction of Knowledge in Gothic Novels

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  2. Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch
  3. Vol. 64, Issue 1
  4. pp. 225–250

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Linne, L. Internal Focalization and Restriction of Knowledge in Gothic Novels. . The Example of Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho. Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch, 64(1), 225-250. https://doi.org/10.3790/ljb.64.1.225
Linne, Lena "Internal Focalization and Restriction of Knowledge in Gothic Novels. The Example of Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho. " Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch 64.1, 2023, 225-250. https://doi.org/10.3790/ljb.64.1.225
Linne, Lena (2023): Internal Focalization and Restriction of Knowledge in Gothic Novels, in: Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch, vol. 64, iss. 1, 225-250, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/ljb.64.1.225
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Internal Focalization and Restriction of Knowledge in Gothic Novels

The Example of Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho

Linne, Lena

Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch, Vol. 64 (2023), Iss. 1 : pp. 225–250

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Duncker & Humblot
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3790/ljb.64.1.225
Language
Multiple languages
Pages
26

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Author Details

Lena Linne (Bochum)

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Abstract

Narratologists have suggested that the eighteenth-century Gothic novel plays a crucial role for the increasingly authentic representation of the individual character’s mind and for the growing importance of character point of view or internal focalization. By contrast, the present article questions this claim. Analysing pas­sages from Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and other classics of the genre, the essay shows that Gothic novels are rarely interested in the subjective experiences of their characters; instead, they frequently delimit the readers’ knowledge so as to create suspense. The essay thus challenges narratological assumptions about the genre as well as about the development of character point of view. Furthermore, it combines this historical argument with a theoretical one. While ›character point of view‹ and ›internal focalization‹ are often used indiscriminately, the essay makes a case for the distinction of the two as closely related, yet separate concepts, relating the former to a rendering of human subjectivity, the latter to a strategic regulation of narrative information. Hence, the essay questions existing notions in historical narratology, dispels some confusion about ›focalization‹ and ›point of view‹ in narratology, and contributes to an understanding of the suspense mechanisms in Gothic novels.

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Lena Linne: Internal Focalization and Restriction of Knowledge in Gothic Novels. The Example of Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho 225

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