A Sicilian Romance 1
Main Points
We began our discussion of Ann Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Romance (1790) by discussing what’s different about the book – an indulgence in rich description, stalling vs. epistolary immediacy, a change in understanding of emotion (beyond the “passions”), and elements of mystery. Many of these differences connect to the conventions of the novel’s genre, the Gothic.
- female heroine
- an ancient castle, monastery, etc., with lots of places to hide
- psychoanalysis: underground passages as a metaphor of the unconscious; reckoning with psychological/physical burial by digging up the repressed
- exotic setting: usually continental, Catholic Europe
- past setting: but no historical markers
- tyrannical patriarchs
- a dead, missing, or ineffectual mother
- invocation of the supernatural
- poetry: part of the narrator’s urge to slow us down
There are two types of Gothic novels:
- “light” Gothic = there will be a rational explanation for what we don’t understand now
- ex: detective genre, “Scooby Doo”
- “dark” Gothic = there really is something paranormal going on
- ex: horror genre, Frankenstein
Radcliffe’s novel revolves around the importance on the “sublime,” a term coined by Edmund Burke to describe overwhelming or extreme experience, including description of a sublime natural event. Conventions of the sublime include:
- obscurity
- grandeur, size
- terror and fear (as a source of pleasure)
- threatens to overwhelm the self
Radcliffe’s use of the “picturesque” is an attempt to create virtual sublimity for the reader. Emphasis on uncultivated nature comes out of urbanization - people living in the city were in awe of its opposite. The sublime makes nature into art, imagining vast scenes of natural wonder within a frame.
Finally, we discussed some of the book’s weaknesses, including over-investment in some things at the expense of others:
- Julia, but not other characters
- excitement, but not elaboration of plot or social commentary
- however, the Gothic tropes of the 1790s carry vestiges of the French Revolution: overthrowing of tyrannical rulers by a younger generation, the storming of a prison and the release of captives (the Bastille)
Radcliffe was one of the most popular Gothic authors, and A Sicilian Romance one of the first books to establish the genre’s conventions. Overall, the Gothic wants to make the reader feel something, to engage them on a corporeal level by invocation of the sublime.
Close Readings
Since November 18th presented a more general introduction to A Sicilian Romance, there was not much to say about the actual internal workings of the novel. However, several examples were pointed to in the book concerning Gothic Fiction as a whole. The characterization (almost personification) of the house along with the strong presence of the supernatural were pointed to as main examples of the Gothic Novel present in A Sicilian Romance. Pages 1 and 6 present two examples of the Gothic novel and Radcliffe's notion of the picturesque.
Page 1: On the northern shore of Sicily are still to be seen the magnificent remains of a castle, which formerly belonged to the noble house of Mazzini. It stands in the centre of a small bay, and upon a gentle acclivity, which, on one side, slopes towards the sea, and on the other rises into an eminence crowned by dark woods. The situation is admirably beautiful and picturesque, and the ruins have an air of ancient grandeur…. As I turned from the scene with a sign, I fixed my eyes upon a friar, whose venerable figure, gently bending towards the earl, formed no uninteresting object in the picture.
Page 6: From this spot the eye had an almost boundless range of sea and land. It commanded the straits of Messina, with the opposite shores of Calabria, and a great extent of the wild and picturesque scenery of Sicily. Mount Etna, crowned with eternal snows, and shooting from among the clouds, formed a grand and sublime picture in the background of the scene. The city of Palermo was also distinguishable; and Julia, as she gazed on its glittering spires, would endeavour in imagination to depicture its beauties.
Referent
Mount Etna:
Mount Etna is located on the coast of Sicily, close to Messina, which is where A Sicilian Romance takes place. As the footnote says, Mazzini is a made up family name but the location of the story is real.
Mount Etna is an active volcano and is almost always active. It erupts very frequently from one of its 300 vents. This makes it very difficult to predict where the next eruption will take place. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It was deemed a “Decade Volcano” by the United Nations. A Decade Volcano has large and frequent eruptions that cause considerable danger to surrounding settlements. It has several large craters that are monitored by a webcam (see link below). It has a huge caldera named the “Valle de Bove”. A caldera is formed when the volcano collapses and creates a large cauldron-like area. It is the highest mountain south of the Alps.
To the Ancient Greeks, Mount Etna was the home of Vulcan (the God of Fire) and the Cyclops.
The size, the danger, and the classical history associated with Mount Etna explains why Radcliffe chose it as the setting of her gothic novel. The frequent eruptions and mystery that surrounds volcanoes makes it a perfect candidate for the natural sublime.
Links:
Picture of erupting Mt. Etna
Mount Etna live webcam:
http://www.ct.ingv.it/Etna2007/WEBCAM.ASP
Sources:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Italy/description_italy_volcanics.html
http://www.bestofsicily.com/etna.htm
Close Reading No.2: We talked about two passages in detail. The first one we have mentioned can be found on p. 44. With regard to this, the conclusion was drawn that with the genre of the gothic novel we move from displaying just passions to real emotions: “Love, hatred and jealousy, raged by turns in her heart, and defied all power of controul.” New categories for characters are introduced (like the marchioness in this example) by this technique. But there still is some kind of similarity to Haywood left. A Sicilian Romance works as a mediocre novel between Haywood’s style of writing and the gothic genre since you have two different sets of characters: some you can investigate in, some you cannot (e.g. Emilia vs. Julia). The second passage is on p. 1. Here, Radcliffe introduces the reader to the setting in a very picturesque way (she delivers a verbal picture!). Again, it is referred to the sublimity which is very important for Radcliffe: “I walked over loose fragments of stone, which lay scattered through the immense area of the fabric, and surveyed the sublimity and grandeur of the ruins […].”
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