Instead, because I'm so tired, here is my dissertation proposal (rough):
'"I had come to the end of my Time... My Shaddowe stretched over the World": Making Time for Gothic Space.'
This question came out of the 'Gothic' unit, studied in Semester 1, of year 2. The 'Gothic' genre is saturated with both texts, and critical analyses. There have been hundreds of suggestions as to why something is written, why it is written that way, and why it matters. A lot of the research has focused on how important time is in the construction of narratives. My dissertation will demonstrate that even though the genre has endured for hundreds of years, in reality we have never moved past the original text: that time has become obsolete, with just where we move in being important. My focus will be on intertextuality, and how what happens in the novels can explain what happens in the genre. Physically inside the novels I will look at how space impacts the characters, and then relate this to how the genre has evolved generally. For example, where a character acknowledges that he has visited a place before, in a previous time, we could suggest that this is true of all Gothic texts: that they are all visitations of the first Gothic novel.
I will approach this question in a variety of ways. The style necessitates that I first look at determinism: the idea that one root can cause all of the following actions. Then I will explore the concept of space itself, seeking to conclude that it can effect action. This will bring in ideas of situationism and psychogeography, both of which are explained later. The final idea will look at the difference between urban and rural landscapes. Whilst these concepts sound fairly inaccessible, in practice they are fairly simple to follow. Whilst I cannot make a grandiose claim that my dissertation has a topical bearing on the current international conversation about global warming, for instance, the wealth of secondary material - and how it is opposed to my argument - does at least mean my topic is relevant.
These theories all stem all come from the same areas of thought: determinism, situationism, and psychogeography are the same concept applied to different things. Using these ideas I will aim to show how The Castle of Otranto, that 'first' Gothic novel, by setting the conventions, makes time irrelevant, and places the onus of interest on physical space instead; or what could be called 'determinism'. For the concept of space, mainly in Hawksmoor and From Hell I will analyse studies of 'psychogeography' - a rationale born from the late 'situationist' movement of the 1970's. The former idea, psychogeography, basically means how a physical environment impacts on a person's behaviour and thought. Situationism was the root cause of psychogeography, and was a movement which called for, among other things, new layouts for cities; ones which responded to human, base desire, not just 'capitalist' thought. As we are beginning to see, all of these theories tie in neatly together: determinism breeds situationism breeds psychogeography; all demonstrating how the larger issues can be represented by what happens in the novels.
My primary study will be as simple as possible, so as to avoid over-complicating the issue, and it will be done chronologically. It will be a comparative, literature study, made fairly easy by the Gothic tendency to use types and traditions. As these devices are used, a straight comparison is feasible and logical. The idea is that my research follows a simple route, because it is a complex issue. This is a complicated proposal - but there is another method I aim to use in order to make my concepts more clear. I hope to build the dissertation much in the same way as I am building my argument: the first chapter determining the next, and the next, and so on until the conclusion which will hopefully bring me full-circle back to my original hypothesis. This conventional structure is slightly dry, however, and so I aim to make it more interesting with different formatting and style.
There are several challenges I expect to face whilst completing this work. Most of these were explained in the feedback from my proposal presentation. It became clear, for instance, wherein most of the difficulties would lie. The class said that they understood what I was saying, but not the point I was trying to make - and no one seemed to understand the impact that my research could have, if any. Due to the feedback, I have slightly altered my core aims, to give them a broader scope of impact. Similarly, my personal tutor issued caution and warned that it seemed a heavy topic which could seem quite inaccessible to anyone not up to speed with the areas of research. Owing to this, I will aim to focus my energies on making sure that the narrative of my dissertation is clear at all times, has a point at all times, and follows a simple train of thought at all times. I will add to this by styling my dissertation in a slightly unconventional way: with some alterations of the traditional model, I can hope to keep the reader engaged throughout the narrative.
To get the information I need, I am going to have to look further than just the library. Criticisms on these topics are fairly arcane, and niche, and so I will have to look into specific journals and publications which focus on these issues. For the philosophical side, however, there are numerous resources in the library - several of which impacted on my question design - which can help me understand and use determinism to its fullest. For the 'psychogeographic' side of my research, the journal Cultural Critique will be a great help, in particular Elizabeth Ho's Postimperial Landscapes "Psychogeography" and Englishness in Alan Moore's Graphic Novel: this essay, in particular, focuses on the blurring of time, "the energy required to kill Kelly causes the boundaries of time to dissolve..." (2006, p. 99). On the subject of situationism, Simon Sadler's Situationist City is the text which will act as my introduction, and explanation for the contexts of situationism, the foundations, and the implications. There are also several electronic resources on this topic. Overall, for my broadest themes, I will look at some past dissertations to see where their focus was: with this I can see where my research should go, and where it should not because other people have done it before.
The first primary text I am going to look at is 'The Castle of Otranto', by Horace Walpole; the text often considered the 'first' Gothic novel. In this text, there is a conflict between a domineering Lord, and several other characters, which culminates in several escape plans, some ethereal visitations, and some near-death experiences. In short, it is the text which became the basis for all subsequent Gothic novels. One way to show this, for instance, is in its geography: the castle, the forest, the dungeons, the wide expanses of rural, untamed wilderness. Castle of Otranto offers the first example of determinism: the root product which causes everything that comes after it. This concept will be shown through the use of Gerald Dworkin's Determinism, free will, and moral responsibility. This work focuses on the theoretical and real-world implications of the philosophy and is crucial in explaining how The Castle of Otranto relates to subsequent Gothic novels. This source is, as well, both a theoretical and methodological text, which should aid in explanation. These ideas, then, will become the basis for my first chapter. The focus will be mainly on the geographical elements, because they contribute to the subsequent three chapters - culminating in the final discussion of rurality against urbanity - but there will be discussion of other issues, such as the progress of time, and in what space the protagonists move.
To contrast the sparse rurality, and stagnant passage of time, in Otranto, I will look at Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor. The reasoning behind this being twofold: it is a novel where time is delineated; set in an overlapping narrative between the 18th Century, and modern-times, and because Ackroyd himself can be argued to be a proponent of geographical and classical determinism. The title of my dissertation is a quote from Hawksmoor, and it exemplifies the themes that the work is going to focus on. In the novel, for instance, the protagonists' lives become intertwined, and Ackroyd argues that time is cyclical, and thus all action is pre-fated. Working closely with Janik's essay, which speaks about, "a world defined only spatially, no longer in terms of development through time", I will aim to show how the two link together (1995, p. 160). Although the novel is one about fatalism, it explores themes of urban space, and the importance of transient geography as a signifier and creator of behaviour. It is also useful because if time is cyclical, then elements of this novel logically must be taken from Walpole's Castle of Otranto. This kind of intertextuality is another theme which will be necessary to explore during the course of my discussion. Hawksmoor centres on the internalised recognition of societal, and physical, boundaries: the eponymous Hawksmoor attempts to solve a series of murders galvanized, and theoretically perpetrated three-hundred years previously. In an allegory for my own research, he investigates by allowing time to outpace him, and simply focusing on how he interacts with the space - as the fatalistic 'Time' draws him inexorably to the answer he cannot avoid. Though it seems pernicious to use a novel which focuses so heavily on the importance of time, it is fact only doing so in a superficial way. Hawksmoor acknowledges the universal presence of natural, intractable laws of causation, and this enables him to systematically ignore them. The point of this novel, then, is to demonstrate my second point: how determinism effects character and genre. For secondary reading here I will use both Sadler's Situationist City and Dworkin's Determinism; both should help expound the concepts I am hoping to discuss.
My third primary text is Ian Sinclair's Lud Heat, which is considered by all - including being openly acknowledged by Ackroyd in his novel's dedication - to be the basis for Hawksmoor. It is a disjointed poem which focus on the construction of satanic churches: a theme mirrored strongly in Ackroyd's novel. Although it is the premise for Hawksmoor, I do not wish to spend too much time discussing it. Sinclair's work is notoriously inaccessible, and most criticism tends to be fawning, rather than constructive, and it is thus of no use to me. There are some secondary sources which could be of use, however, and these include Sinclair's own modernist amalgamation of 'city writings', London: City of Disappearances. This narrative explores the unsaid, undeclared, and unvoiced undersides of the urban landscape. To help build upon the issues raised in Sinclair's novel, I am going to use Alan Moore's graphic novel From Hell. There are distinct parallels to be drawn between these two works: post-modernism, discussion of psychogeography, fragmented narrative, and others. From Hell is a novel which defies convention by revealing, early on, the killer whom the detective wishes to catch - and the broader themes of symbolism, fourth-dimensions, and the transient nature of time, are fore-fronted. It is the visions one of the protagonists, Gull, has, as he murders his victims, that tie this novel inextricably with Hawksmoor, and thus Lud Heat, and thus The Castle of Otranto. Further reading into this subject has brought me to Psychogeography, by Merlin Coverly, and City Codes: Reading the Modern Urban Novel, by Hana Wirth-Nesher. Both of these texts explore ways in which city-scapes are explored and written, and how elements of psychogeography impact upon them. At the close of this chapter, then, I will hopefully have demonstrated how closely linked all of these novels are, how they all stem from the same place, and how the characters behave as the genre does. On top of this, I will explore interpretations of the novels and concepts, including the film version of From Hell, which loosely resembles the plot and characters in the novel, and a work of Gothic photography (Hughes, & Hughes, 2001). The photography, of Francesca Woodman, will help give my points clarity with visual representations of the concepts I seek to discuss (Townsend, 2006, p. ?). The intertextuality and inter-connectivity will hopefully be shown to be irrefutable, and important, and will segue nicely into my final chapter.
In the final chapter I will discuss the different ways in which these concepts are explored through the use of geography. Having started with Otranto's geography, it seems logical to finish with it. I will compare and contrast the rural space and the urban space, trying to show that neither is more important than the other, but that they are both more important than the time the novel takes place in, was written in, or speaks about. This chapter will reference all of the texts discussed in chapters one to three and will hopefully demonstrate how it does not matter when the texts were written, or when they are set, but that they were written at all. By the close of this chapter, I hope to have fully elucidated my idea that although hundreds of years have passed since The Castle of Otranto, we are in much the same place in time: it is only the space that has changed, from the rural sparsity to the city modernity.
The supervisor I am hoping to work with on my dissertation is Christopher Pittard, who is a published writer on psychogegraphy and a lecturer of the 'Gothic' unit in year two. It was his recommendations which enabled me to find the texts I needed.
--Ackroyd, P. (1985). Hawksmoor. London: Penguin Books.
--Sinclair, I. (2002). Lud Heat and Suicide Bridge. London: Granta Books.
--Moore, A. (2008). From Hell (8th ed.). London: Knockabout Comics.
--Walpole, H. (1764). The Castle of Otranto. Somewhere: Some cunts.
--Sadler, S. (1998). The Situationist City. London: MIT Press.
--Dworkin, G (ed.) (1970). Determinism, free will, and moral responsibility. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
--Hughes, A., & Hughes, A. (Directors). (2001). From Hell [Motion Picture]. United States: Twentieth Century Fox
--Ho, E. (2006, Spring). Postimperial Landscapes "Psychogeography" and Englishness in Alan Moore's Graphic Novel "From Hell: A Melodrama in Sixteen Parts". Cultural Critique. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from JSTOR database.
--Coverly, M. (2006). Psychogeography. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials.
--Sinclair, I. (Ed.). (2007). London: City of Disappearances. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
--Wirth-Nesher, H. (1996). City Codes: Reading The Modern Urban Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
--Stein, H. F. (1987). Developmental Time, Cultural Space: Studies in Psychogeography. Oklahoma: Oklahoma University Press.
--Koenigsberg, R. A. Developmental Time, Cultural Space: Studies in Psychogeography by Howard F. Stein. Political Psychology. Retrieved May 14, 2010, from JSTOR database.
--Janik, D. I. (1995). No End of History: Evidence from the Contemporary English Novel. Twentieth Century Literature. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from JSTOR database.
--Plant, S. (1992). The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International. London: Routledge.
--Downs, R. M., & Stea, D. (Eds.). (1973). Image and Environment. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
--Ford, S. (1995). The Realization and Suppression of the Situationist International: An Annotated Bibliography 1972 - 1992. Edinburgh: AK Press.
--Alter, R. (2005). Imagined Cities: Urban Experience and the language of the Novel [Electronic version]. New Haven: Yale University Press.
--Janik, D. I. (1995). No End of History: Evidence from the Contemporary English Novel. Twentieth Century Literature. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from JSTOR database.
--Townsend, C. (2006). Scattered in Space and Time. In Townsend, C. (Ed.), Francesca Woodman: Scattered in Space and Time (pp. 1-?). London: Phaidon.
--Sinclair, I. (2002). Lud Heat and Suicide Bridge. London: Granta Books.
--Moore, A. (2008). From Hell (8th ed.). London: Knockabout Comics.
--Walpole, H. (1764). The Castle of Otranto. Somewhere: Some cunts.
--Sadler, S. (1998). The Situationist City. London: MIT Press.
--Dworkin, G (ed.) (1970). Determinism, free will, and moral responsibility. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
--Hughes, A., & Hughes, A. (Directors). (2001). From Hell [Motion Picture]. United States: Twentieth Century Fox
--Ho, E. (2006, Spring). Postimperial Landscapes "Psychogeography" and Englishness in Alan Moore's Graphic Novel "From Hell: A Melodrama in Sixteen Parts". Cultural Critique. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from JSTOR database.
--Coverly, M. (2006). Psychogeography. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials.
--Sinclair, I. (Ed.). (2007). London: City of Disappearances. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
--Wirth-Nesher, H. (1996). City Codes: Reading The Modern Urban Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
--Stein, H. F. (1987). Developmental Time, Cultural Space: Studies in Psychogeography. Oklahoma: Oklahoma University Press.
--Koenigsberg, R. A. Developmental Time, Cultural Space: Studies in Psychogeography by Howard F. Stein. Political Psychology. Retrieved May 14, 2010, from JSTOR database.
--Janik, D. I. (1995). No End of History: Evidence from the Contemporary English Novel. Twentieth Century Literature. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from JSTOR database.
--Plant, S. (1992). The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International. London: Routledge.
--Downs, R. M., & Stea, D. (Eds.). (1973). Image and Environment. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
--Ford, S. (1995). The Realization and Suppression of the Situationist International: An Annotated Bibliography 1972 - 1992. Edinburgh: AK Press.
--Alter, R. (2005). Imagined Cities: Urban Experience and the language of the Novel [Electronic version]. New Haven: Yale University Press.
--Janik, D. I. (1995). No End of History: Evidence from the Contemporary English Novel. Twentieth Century Literature. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from JSTOR database.
--Townsend, C. (2006). Scattered in Space and Time. In Townsend, C. (Ed.), Francesca Woodman: Scattered in Space and Time (pp. 1-?). London: Phaidon.
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Yeah, you know what, actually? That can fuck off. This can fuck off. I'm not good with this. Why are we, a purportedly civilized nation, appointing fucking homophobes to top cabinet positions? Are we that fucking retarded? At least the Americans are fucking obvious in their idiocy: they just try to ban shit. This woman won't ostensibly seem like she's doing anything to penalise minorities, with the main emphasis on the LGBT movement, but that's because she won't be doing anything. She'll just blithely sit back and watch as the possible legislation drifts into nothingness - because that's precisely what she wants. I'm genuinely, and devastatingly, astounded that this kind of thing can go on in our society. It's unbelievable, patently ludicrous. That's what you've done Britain: you've done exactly what I said you would -- you voted them in because you were tired of Labour, and you thought you were getting something different, but now all you've been left with is the same old shit, in a new fucking dress, and the new fucking dress is even more cunty than the previous one. Labour have a decent enough record for the promotion of equality-rights. So, good job on allowing societal regression, fucktards. People keep asking me why I hate this country so much, and it is things like this. Things that you wouldn't believe actually happened in first-world countries. I knew they had a bunch of bigots strewn down the ministerial ladder, but I assumed they'd keep them vaguely quiet so as not to antagonise people too early on. Evidently, and for a change it seems, I was wrong. There will be inevitable comparisons with the Third Reich soon, and whilst they will be grossly over-inflated, and disrespectful to the deceased and the still-bereaved, an element of what they're saying will be true. You put up this bullshit veneer, and get people to vote for you, and then you come out and you're actually a fucking dick hell-bent on penalising anyone who even thinks of deviating from the main course. HEY GREAT. SOCIETAL STAGNATION. THAT'S AWESOME. Fucking hell this shit pisses me off so much. What the fuck is wrong with these people? How can you still be such a mindless bigot? How have we not stamped this shit out yet? Are you honestly and truly telling me that this is what the majority of people want? Because it if is, frankly I don't want to be a part of it any more. If this - I'm not going to grace it with a title, it will be referred to as 'First Indication of Scum' (FIS) - if this FIS is representative of what this country wants then I do not want to be a part of it. Get me the hell out of this shit, man. It's too ridiculous. And fuck you, Clegg. Your betrayal is no less egregious: at least Cameron never really pretended to have changed. He's the same scum that he always was. Clegg, you sad, sad, sad, sad little man. What did Einstein say, 'The world is a fucking shit place, but it ain't 'cause of the cunts, it's because of the cunts who let the cunts be cunts'. Or something. Cameron's the former, you're the latter.
See ya.
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