Irish Gothic Fiction

This chapter discusses the nature and function of the Gothic mode in Irish fiction. Given the general acceptance that elements of the Gothic can be found in the work of almost every major Irish writer since the eighteenth century, the chapter investigates the ‘Irishness’ of Irish Gothic writing. It argues that Irish Gothic fiction as a genre often employs strategies of closure, while simultaneously articulating a suspicion of, or disillusionment with, the Gothic itself. The chapter examines how the Gothic often functioned as one way in which the atavistic monsters of the past could be exorcized and banished, thus opening a clearing in which civilized modernity could be established. Irish Gothic fiction, then, can be read as working against itself, calling to mind all the associations that the genre and mode bring with them, but only to launch a war with these associations in a bid to eradicate them. This attempted exorcism of the Gothic generally fails, however, and the Gothic always returns, undiminished in power.