Gothic Fiction and Queer Theory

The queerness of Gothic fiction is so deeply engrained that it offers a queer theory of its own. Indeed, the Gothic-ness of Queer Theory is so automatic that the latter often itself becomes a mode of Gothic fiction. This chapter explores that interplay by first showing how Gothic fiction gives rise to queer theory and then responding with the ways in which queer theory depends on the Gothic. Examples come from Gothic works ranging from The Castle of Otranto to Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Haunting of Hill House. Also considered closely are theoretical statements by Sedgwick, Freccero, Edelman, and Muñoz. In the main, this chapter poses and begins answers to two key questions: What is it about the primary Gothic tropes that make them always already queer, and what is it about queer theory that makes it Gothic in its most intense moments? If Gothic fiction anticipates the work of queer theory, too, how does queer theory answer that obsession?