الفهرس 
Gothic Representations of the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other in Colonial and Postcolonial ContextsOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The thesis aims to identify points of intersection between
Empire and Gothic literature as far as ideologies and tools of
representation are concerned. It attempts to offer a more solid
definition of Colonial Gothic based on common features between its
constituent forms. The researcher compares how three colonial Gothic
texts and three postcolonial Gothic works that are closely connected to
their colonial counterparts rework those common features to express
conflicting concerns. The thesis attempts to provide a close textual
analysis of charlotte Brontë ’s Jane Eyre (1847) in relation to Jean
Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
(1902) in relation to Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North
(1966) and E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India (1924) in relation to
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s Heat and Dust (1975). Moreover, it aims to
understand whether postcolonial writers’ appropriation of Gothic
tropes is a subversive act that also expands the Gothic mode or a mere
imitation of Colonial Gothic ideologies and tropes.
After comparing the postcolonial Gothic texts to their colonial
counterparts, one can conclude that Wide Sargasso Sea and Season of
Migration to the North creatively rework Gothic tropes to subvert
colonial ideology and examine pressing postcolonial concerns. Heat
and Dust, on the other hand, imitates rather than creatively
appropriates Gothic tropes. Moreover, in spite of being a postcolonial
text, at least in temporal terms, it blindly reproduces racist colonial
ideology. Thus, the subversiveness of the text, as well as, its ability to
reinvent Gothic tropes to express postcolonial concerns are the two
factors that determine whether the work is a mere imitation of old
colonial models or a creative mode of resistance.The thesis consists of three chapters in addition to an
introduction and a conclusion. Each chapter tackles one of the form’s
defining features and compares how colonial and postcolonial writers
rework this feature to express conflicting ideologies. Moreover, it
examines whether the postcolonial texts in question reinvent Gothic
tropes and offer subversive readings or merely imitate colonial models.
The introduction offers a brief overview of the origin of
colonial Gothic, its timeline, phases of development and distinctive
features. Moreover, it attempts to offer a more solid definition of the
form that takes into consideration thematic, ideological and stylistic
features of the genre.
Chapter I entitled “Gothic Representations of the ‘Self’ and the
‘Other’ in Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts” examines the complex
relation between colonial fears and characterization. It illustrates how
fears of reverse colonization, going native and the decline of the
Empire result in Gothic representations of the self and the other. It
compares how colonial and postcolonial writers use Gothic tropes such
as the figure of the ghost, the monster, the vampire, the cannibal, the
dark enigmatic villain and the persecuted helpless heroine to express
concerns about identity, liminal spaces, racial purity, cultural
stereotyping and the distance between self and other.
Chapter II entitled “Gothic Representations of the ‘Center’ and
the ‘Periphery’ in Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts” compares how
colonial and postcolonial writers appropriate the tropes of the secret
locked room, Gothic ruins and the haunted labyrinthine Gothic castle
in their representations of both England and the colonies. Moreover, it
sheds light on the accompanying feelings of physical and cultural
entrapment during colonization and after independence.
Chapter III entitled “Colonial and Postcolonial Uncanny
Encounters” examines the uncanny Gothic experiences that the
colonizers and the colonized go through as a result of imperial atrocities. It draws on the concept of the uncanny as expounded by
Freud. It compares how the different writers use the various
manifestations of the uncanny to promote or subvert colonial ideology.