ABSTRACT
A development in Gothic Studies is an acknowledgment of the importance of the popular supernatural on which early romances draw. Anne Williams succinctly explains the importance of Julia Kristeva’s “semiotic” to the Gothic, particularly its link to characterizations of terror and horror, and the Romantic sublime. She argues that “Gothic conventions of plot and character also represent various modes of disruption within the Symbolic,” through which “they facilitate the high Romantic aim of ‘fresh’ vision, of seeing with an eye not dulled by habit or custom”. Understanding gothic subjectivity in ways beyond reality-mimicking characterization necessitates acknowledging a more inclusive supernatural, one that accesses a more ancient ontology, in addition to Enlightenment and religious forms of subjectivity. Jane Stabler suggests that the repetition that characterizes Ann Radcliffe’s poetry is an extension of the repetition of language and plot points in the novels.
