Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Southern gothic'

The primary focus of the thesis is to examine and explain the architectural, religious, and anthropological occurrences that influenced the implementation of ecclesiology in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana in the period prior to the American Civil War in 1861. Architectural, religious, and cultural developments in the region have been considered within the context of Romanticism, Cotton Capitalism, provincial architectural taste and climatic conditions, socioeconomic placement of the gentry planter class, and the liturgical developments within the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church was the only denomination interested in the development of the Gothic Revival and the High Church influences in the largely evangelical region creates a question of purpose. Aside from liturgical requirements, issues of taste and refinement are associated with the Gothic form and are therefore associated with the educated and wealthy Episcopal congregants. This thesis examines the information beyond any existing literature and explains how and why a variation of ecclesiology was implemented in certain Episcopal parishes in the Gulf South. The methodology for creating an argument for antebellum ecclesiology concentrates on primary sources and fieldwork. The first hand accounts of both natives and travellers in the region, the reports from the clergy, and the writings from the Episcopal planter class, all infuse to create a clear understanding of the development of the Gothic Revival and the purpose, both religiously and socially, of the style. The influence of the Oxford Movement and the English ecclesiologists is also considered when evaluating the transatlantic relationship between the American Church and Southern Anglophiles in relation to the Church of England. The theological and humanistic understanding of mankind within the confines of a slave-based economy also influenced the decision of the planter class to gravitate towards the Episcopal Church and establish an architectural presence unique to their social and economic level. Ecclesiology embodied the refinement and social position of the Episcopal Church, creating a visible and psychical manifestation of High Church principles suited for the gentry slaveholding class. By examining the architectural models of the early Episcopal Church in the Gulf South, this data establishes a pattern of the Church supporting the Gothic Revival and, in some circumstances, following the principles of ecclesiology.

I created the term Neo-Raconteur to convey my interest in medium theory to support the artistic custom of revealing cultural conventions for allocation into artistic genres. The term evolved from the French word "Raconteur," meaning: somebody who tells stories or anecdotes in an interesting or entertaining way. In the past a Raconteur's anecdotes were verbally volleyed, ever voluble, yet quip. Neo-Raconteurs may decide not to speak at all choosing their anecdotal expression to manifest itself through singular or multiple means, manners, or methods of design and technology as well as or involving more traditional techniques of extraction to convey the narrative. I demonstrate how it applies to my work in time-based-media within the realms of Southern Gothic symbolism -- which rely on the supernatural, physical geographic settings, instances of the grotesque and irony along with visual and/or psychological shadow(s) of foreboding caused by tradition or hidden truths, occasionally both.

With the success of podcasts like Serial and This American Life's S-Town, the calamity of J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, and the dawning of "Trump's America" as a regional branding, Appalachia has once again found itself laid bare on the national stage. As the romanticization of Appalachia as poor, packing, and white persists, the question becomes: how can Appalachian peoples access these negative images as tools of resistance, reformation, and community making? How does an American gothic find home in Appalachian narratives? This project explores clashes between national othering and local othering in Appalachian identity making as a tangible production of an Appalachian grotesque, a grotesque constructed through the subversion of the modern American gothic as a critical model for exploring Appalachian identity, particularly nationally othered and queered identities. The scope of this project ranges from contemporary, such as the popular memoir Hillbilly Elegy (2016) and the record breaking podcast S-Town (2016), as well as Robert Gipe's debut novel, Trampoline (2015), and their historical counterparts: the 1967 documentary Holy Ghost People and the 1976 documentary Harlan County, U.S.A. Through the lens of contemporary gothic readings of identity that come to form the grotesque, a framework for deconstructing notions of Appalachian fatalism begins to emerge. By specifically looking at ideas of violence, whether economic, cultural, or physical, and theories of erasure through the lens of land distribution and acquisition in Appalachia and its effect on self and community identity built up in the anchoring texts, defining and cultivating an Appalachian grotesque allows for a quantifying of Appalachian persistence within a history of critical thought, for better or for worse, as a way of both critiquing and fortifying the identity of Appalachia.
Master of Arts
The narrative of Appalachia, as white, poor, uneducated, barefoot, etc. that defines conceptions of the grotesque in contemporary media, such as more classic movies like 1972’s Deliverance, the tale of four ‘city boys’ from Atlanta during a bloody trip through the mountains, most famous for its “Dueling Banjos” scene, or more recent movies such as 2017’s Logan Lucky, a heist movie centered around two brothers’ plot to rob a NASCAR race in North Carolina, interacts with concepts of American masculinity and femininity through two prominent categories: hunger and disgust. Through the literary positioning of the body as a site in which hunger and disgust interact/react, as well as the subsequent relationship between sex and desire as defining features of a productive, and reproductive body, southern gothic tropes are encapsulated and reimagined through a grotesque Appalachian lens. It is through this cyclical process of hunger and disgust, and sex, desire, and production, in the social, political, and economic spheres that an Appalachian notion of the grotesque is formed.

The American South is a rich source of literature that combines the humorous and the horrific in its attempts to explain and expose the region's deep-seated social turmoil. One of the most prolific genres to come out of the South is southern gothic literature that, though not always humorous is known for its use of grotesque imagery and reliance on highly charged melodramatic narratives. When these works are comic, they don't merely reflect the region's strife but attempt to transform it. This dissertation looks at how southern gothic writers Beth Henley, Fannie Flagg and Flannery O'Connor use dark comedy in their works as defiant acts designed to question the status quo and reform the southern landscape by creating ruptures where marginalized people can assert themselves into the norms of American culture. Drawing on several different definitions of comedy, including Barecca's works on female narratives and linguistic theories of jokes, this work defines dark comedy and identifies where humor and horror come together in the works of these southern gothic writers to form particularly dark comic moments. Then, it uses Butler's theory of sites of rupture to explain how dark comedy can be transformative. In Giving an Account of Oneself, Butler explains Foucault's regime of truth as a system that is always both self-reflexive and social - a system where the norms that govern recognition create boundaries where subjects are formed. She goes on to conclude that ruptures can occur within the "horizon of normativity" whereby those relegated to the margins can gain entry and be encompassed within the governing norms. Dark comedy, then, occurs at or even creates that site of rupture in the individual and in the society that experiences it, and allows for the individual, and by extension society, to change its understanding of what is normal and resides within the margins. Within the text, then, dark comedy changes the governing norms to include the once marginalized oddities.

If I am anything, I am a Kentuckian, which means I appreciate a good storyteller. In my writing, I hope to bring back some dignity to the “lost cause” of the good values from a broken culture. While I am not quite “southern” enough to qualify as a writer of Southern Gothic fiction, I can relate to this brand of identity crisis in which someone wants to maintain an archaic mindset in a culture charging towards “progress.” As technology and corporate success take precedence over a genteel and pastoral soul, our collective competitiveness has crippled a quaint future of back porch comforts. Being well-read or holding open doors won’t pay for student loans, and there is no such thing as stars in our crowns anymore. For many regions of Kentucky, there is this conflict within the graying of small town communities. My region is one of these. As time marches on, the agrarian lifestyle itself becomes industrialized, and these old family farms, upon which small towns are built, are not self-sustaining. In my stories, I capture the perspectives of a rural community’s personalities. My Regionalism may be dated, but then so are the small town values. With these short stories, I hope to create a collection of characters whose backgrounds may be singular but whose messages are universal. My stories are about the universal fear of loneliness. Perry and White, the cameo characters, pop up throughout because they epitomize this with their irrational companionship. “The Ancient Art of Smile-Making,” “A Well Meaning Marionette,” “The Peacock Cloister,” and “In the Garden, Swallowing Pearls” are essentially about this innate need for company. “Murdered in a Good Dress” and “Myrtle Slog” illustrate the homesickness experienced by those who divorce themselves from closeness of the rural community. Sometimes we call “friendship” kitschy and cliché. And why is that? I made Perry and White’s bond a bit absurd because it is almost ridiculous that there could be a person in the wild world who would sacrifice themselves.

Inspired by her obsession with the South and informed by the liberating socio-political changes born from the 1970s lesbian feminist movement, North Carolinian author Bertha Harris (1937-2005) provides a poetic exploration of Southern Gothic Sapphism in her complex and tormented novel Confessions of Cherubino (1972). Despite fleeting second-wave era recognition as “one of the most stylistically innovative American fiction writers to emerge since Stonewall,” Harris’s innovation remains largely neglected by readers and cultural theorists alike. Nearly all academic engagements with her work, of which there are few, address her 1976 novel Lover. Instead, this thesis focuses on Confessions of Cherubino and examines the novel’s relationship to poststructural feminist thought that led to a critical but undervalued position within contemporary literature of the queer South, particularly through the work of Dorothy Allison, who has noted Harris’s influence on her writing.

Set in mythical Humble County, Georgia, Days of the Endless Corvette tells the story of Earl Mulvaney, a high-school dropout and auto mechanic. Earl loves Ellen, the brainy and beautiful girl next door, who unfortunately must marry Troy, the star of the high school football team. Throughout the book Earl labors on his “Endless Corvette,” a project as impossible as trying to build a perpetual motion machine. Earl has noticed that each time he takes something apart and rebuilds it, there are leftover parts. He reasons that by disassembling and reassembling his boss’s ’59 Corvette, and saving the leftover pieces each time, eventually he will have enough parts to build an entire car, leaving the original behind. The novel ends with the suggestion that perhaps Earl has succeeded at his project, which stands as a metaphor not only for Earl’s hopeless love, but other searches for answers to life’s perplexities.

This PhD research focuses on Queer Theory and its application to subjectivity in the contexts of creative practice, Practice-Led Research (PLR) and Creative Writing pedagogy. One of the principal concerns of the project is how a queered PLR might foreground subjectivity as a practice in itself and view both creative practice and critical research as components in an “ethics of the self” (Foucault 1978) or “selfbricolage” (Rabinow 1997). In this context, creative practice is conceived as an intervention into subjectivity and creative works are framed as artefacts that both document this interventional process and express or disseminate new subjectivities arising from that process. In a similar vein, research in the Creative Arts is seen as a performative act that includes affect (produced through engagement with both creative and critical texts) as a form of knowledge. As with creative practice, this kind of research informs the ongoing constitution of subjectivity. The research project also explores the notion of effeminacy as a liminal masculinity of considerable discursive potency that simultaneously disrupts both masculinity and femininity. This exploration is undertaken in relation to the Southern Gothic genre of literature, cinema and television.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Humanities
Arts, Education and Law
Full Text

This study seeks to question old and common misconceptions concerning the american literary genre Southern Gothic. By using the carnival theory, the theory about the "grotesque" by Mikhail Bakhtin, this study seeks to explain and reach a better understanding of some works defined as Southern Gothic - so called because of the significance that is attributed in the genre to the geographical location in the southern United states. This study analyzes carnivalesque transgression in short story collections by Flannery O´Connor, Eudora Welty and Dorothy Allison, and the main purpose is to investigate if the genre really is as dark as it is often described by critics; pessimistic, absurdly shocking and without any affirmation regarding the beauty and strength of life.  Transgression is here defined as the transgression made by fictional characters when their bodies and their actions refuses to conform to the norms established by "the official world". By using Bachtins terminology my main thesis is to investigate positive and life-affirming transgression in A Good Man is Hard to Find, A Curtain of Green and Trash. The study further investigates the ways in which the bodies of the fictional characters become grotesque and in what way the characters through their behaviour become carnivalesque. The short stories are also compared with eachother from both a tematic and historic perspective: can changes through time be observed? Does the grotesque form or expression change in any way from Welty to Allison? The conclusion of the study is that both grotesque and carnivalesque forms can be found in the short stories, and it can be considered carnivalesue in a true Bakhtinian way, as both positive and affirming. The study also finds that the grotesque tends to become more positive and life-affirming through time.

Latin American literary criticism has traditionally underestimated the significance of the Gothic aesthetic, in spite of the rich Gothic literary tradition of Latin America. Specifically in the Southern Cone - the focus of my research - there is a particular recurrence and consumption of this genre, not only in literature but also in cinema, which has not been deeply analyzed. I argue that a close examination of the Gothic and Fantastic elements in these novels and films unveils anxieties, repressions and manifestations of social decay that underlie common codes of social decency and the conventions of maintaining an oppressive social tradition. My analysis of particular novels extends from the beginning of the twentieh-century through the Boom; my discussion then extends to film productions from the 1960s to the present. In the first chapter I explore the dissemination of Gothic figures and forms from their eighteenth-century origins to the present. In the second chapter I discuss how the Gothic aesthetic was used at the beginning of the twentieth-century to comment on the effects of modernization and scientific/psychological discoveries in the Southern Cone. I also analyze the Gothic as a powerful feminist discourse. Chapter three focuses on the way the Gothic aesthetic is employed as a mechanism to communicate social and moral decay in a typical Southern Cone family. I also explore how the Gothic is used to question a political-social repression or a dictatorship. In chapter four I focus on cinema in an aesthetically and technically diverse selection of filmes. All of them employ vampirism to comment on different sexual issues, such as repression, incest, homosexuality, fetishism, sadism, and other sexual-social taboos. Finally, the conclusion demonstrates that, while the Gothic aesthetic maintains certain constants throughout the twentieth-century, its underlying meaning shifts to reflect the dominant political-social themes of each era, thus ensuring its continued relevance to popular audiences.

This thesis details the literary and visual influences in my work, the definition of American Gothic, and its connection it to my work. Literary sources such as Edgar Allan Poe and Fanny Kemble help spark a vision of the landscape. Visual influences include Japanese woodblock prints, scenic wallpapers, vintage postcards and Victorian mourning pictures. My regional explorations span the James River, Tidewater swamps and architecture within the city of Richmond.My work depicts local history and ecology inspired by Richmond and the surrounding region. Subtle Gothic elements add anxiety to the otherwise pastoral scenes. Gothic foreboding in the work questions our ecological future and the permanence of our human presence in the landscape.

Trois cloîtres attribués aux couvents de "Trie-sur-Baïse", "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" (aux Cloisters, New York) et "Montréjeau" (Paradise Island, Bahamas) furent remontés outre-Atlantique au cours du XXe siècle. L'installation moderne de tels monuments en Amérique nous incitent à nous intéresser à ce goût, exprimé dés le début du XXe siècle, pour l’architecture médiévale. Selon les premières attributions, les pierres proviendraient d'abbayes des Pyrénées centrales, dont les vestiges furent dispersés au cours de l'Histoire. Les troubles des guerres de Religion, l’abandon progressif des établissements par les communautés religieuses, l’aliénation de leur temporel pendant la Révolution portèrent un coup sévère à l’intégrité des bâtiments monastiques ; mais, de la période post-révolutionnaire jusqu’au début du XXe siècle, ce sont bien les discrètes transactions entre particuliers et antiquaires, qui firent disparaître de la mémoire collective l’origine même des pierres, particulièrement celles des cloîtres en marbre, convoitées pour leur décor. Identifier leur provenance fut l'enjeu majeur de cette étude. Ces marbres sculptés présentent un programme iconographique riche et varié : les ensembles de "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" et de "Montréjeau" proposent un décor de feuillage stylisé tandis que celui de "Trie-sur-Baïse" expose des scènes figurées originales. Mener une analyse de ces sculptures a permis de les restituer dans leur contexte architectural originel
Three cloisters attributed to the monasteries of "Trie-sur-Baise", " Bonnefont-en-Comminges" (the Cloisters, New York) and "Montréjeau" (Paradise Island, Bahamas) were purchased by American collectors and rebuilt, during the XXth century, in North America. The modern assembly of such monuments generates interest on the taste of these American amateurs, from the beginning of XXth century, for medieval European architecture. While respectively attributed to the monasteries of "Trie-sur-Baise", "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" (the Cloisters, New York) and "Montréjeau" (Paradise Island, Bahamas), the initial attribution states that the stones were from central Pyrenees monasteries, whose ruins were scattered throughout ancient times : the Hundred-year war as well as the wars of religion, the gradual desertion of religious institutions by their communities during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries and, at last, the alienation of their properties during the Revolution seriously damaged the integrity of monastic buildings. However, during the post-revolutionary period until the early XXth century, many discrete transactions between individuals and antique dealers further took away the stones real origin from the collective memory, especially cloisters sculptures coveted for their ornament. Identifying the cloisters provenance was the main subject of this study. The three carved marbles present various iconography ; while the "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" and "Montréjeau" ensembles both show stylized foliage ornaments, the "Trie-sur-Baise" cloister depicts original figurative scenes. Carrying out an in-depth study of these sculptures made it possible to accurately associate the cloisters to their original architectural set and production context

Trois cloîtres attribués aux couvents de "Trie-sur-Baïse", "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" (aux Cloisters, New York) et "Montréjeau" (Paradise Island, Bahamas) furent remontés outre-Atlantique au cours du XXe siècle. L'installation moderne de tels monuments en Amérique nous incitent à nous intéresser à ce goût, exprimé dés le début du XXe siècle, pour l’architecture médiévale. Selon les premières attributions, les pierres proviendraient d'abbayes des Pyrénées centrales, dont les vestiges furent dispersés au cours de l'Histoire. Les troubles des guerres de Religion, l’abandon progressif des établissements par les communautés religieuses, l’aliénation de leur temporel pendant la Révolution portèrent un coup sévère à l’intégrité des bâtiments monastiques ; mais, de la période post-révolutionnaire jusqu’au début du XXe siècle, ce sont bien les discrètes transactions entre particuliers et antiquaires, qui firent disparaître de la mémoire collective l’origine même des pierres, particulièrement celles des cloîtres en marbre, convoitées pour leur décor. Identifier leur provenance fut l'enjeu majeur de cette étude. Ces marbres sculptés présentent un programme iconographique riche et varié : les ensembles de "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" et de "Montréjeau" proposent un décor de feuillage stylisé tandis que celui de "Trie-sur-Baïse" expose des scènes figurées originales. Mener une analyse de ces sculptures a permis de les restituer dans leur contexte architectural originel
Three cloisters attributed to the monasteries of "Trie-sur-Baise", " Bonnefont-en-Comminges" (the Cloisters, New York) and "Montréjeau" (Paradise Island, Bahamas) were purchased by American collectors and rebuilt, during the XXth century, in North America. The modern assembly of such monuments generates interest on the taste of these American amateurs, from the beginning of XXth century, for medieval European architecture. While respectively attributed to the monasteries of "Trie-sur-Baise", "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" (the Cloisters, New York) and "Montréjeau" (Paradise Island, Bahamas), the initial attribution states that the stones were from central Pyrenees monasteries, whose ruins were scattered throughout ancient times : the Hundred-year war as well as the wars of religion, the gradual desertion of religious institutions by their communities during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries and, at last, the alienation of their properties during the Revolution seriously damaged the integrity of monastic buildings. However, during the post-revolutionary period until the early XXth century, many discrete transactions between individuals and antique dealers further took away the stones real origin from the collective memory, especially cloisters sculptures coveted for their ornament. Identifying the cloisters provenance was the main subject of this study. The three carved marbles present various iconography ; while the "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" and "Montréjeau" ensembles both show stylized foliage ornaments, the "Trie-sur-Baise" cloister depicts original figurative scenes. Carrying out an in-depth study of these sculptures made it possible to accurately associate the cloisters to their original architectural set and production context

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006.
Title from title screen. Jack Boozer, committee chair; Shirlene Holmes, Marian Meyers, committee members. Electronic text (138 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 19, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-30).

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The literary study of realism in Southern Gothic is complicated and often contentious, and has led over time to a critical suppression of realistic genre forms. The purpose of the research in this dissertation is two-fold. The first objective is to explicate the critical construction of Realistic Southern Gothic literature as it has been formed in the American mainstream and the canon. The second objective is to develop a mixed methodological approach capable of examining the complex cross-disciplinary roots of the genre visible in relevant critical scholarship and popular discourse. A conceptual framework has been applied to analyse the broad aesthetic movements, institutional shifts, disciplinary migrations, and cultural undercurrents longitudinally impacting the mode. The innovative mixed methodology utilised in this dissertation integrates quantitative and qualitative approaches. One such innovation is the application of inductive mathematical visualisation to critical historiographical inspection of literary genre; visualisation is an alternative to standard quantitative methods in literary studies. The application of this methodology is explored through literary case studies, critical surveys, comparative analysis, the Google Books Ngram Viewer, and more. A full picture of the critical life of Realistic Southern Gothic literature is unearthed in this dissertation; exposing a complex and vital genre that is still practiced today, and is deeply engaged with the politics of Southern violence, crime narrative, cultural context, and identity.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to compare the protagonists of two novels which are classified as Southern gothic writings: Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, and The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole. Although the pivotal characters appear dissimilar, the comparison and analysis of the novels might demonstrate common features and motifs. Studying of Southern gothic phenomena constitutes a background for the analysis, and also the initial part of the thesis. It is focused on a basic characteristic of the genre on the basis of the development of Southern literature. There is an introduction of the most important authors, genres, and typical motifs. The analytical part is prefaced by a reference to the life and work of the writers, as their nature and literary production vary. There is more attention paid to the texts by McCarthy because he has published a larger quantity of books in comparison with Toole. Southern gothic elements are therefore observed and compared in the analysed short novels, and also in other McCarthy's texts. The comparison corresponds to the theoretical ground.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004.
Advisor: Dr. Carrie Sandahl, Florida State University, School of Theatre. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 15, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Oggetto di questo studio è l’analisi del ruolo dello spazio nei romanzi appalachiani di Cormac McCarthy. Attraverso una geografia ibrida, tanto realistica quanto espressionistica, l’autore evoca lo spazio mitico per eccellenza del sud statunitense: il giardino prelapsario delle rappresentazioni pastorali. Critici come Jay Ellis e Georg Guillemin hanno individuato la predominanza del setting sui personaggi e le trame dei romanzi di McCarthy, aprendo la via a una lettura di tipo geocritico/ geopoetico, essendo la rappresentazione dello spazio il luogo testuale ove indubbiamente la poetica dell’autore si realizza appieno. In virtù del suo ibridismo, la geografia di McCarthy è una matrice, un terzospazio fluido che, se di frequente risponde ai canoni della pastorale, più spesso mostra quello che Lewis P. Simpson ha definito come il suo opposto estetico e simbolico: il gotico. Il genere pastorale è tipicamente espressione di un ordine divino e, nel caso del Sud, di uno sguardo retrospettivo e malinconico che interpreta il presente sul modello di un passato idealizzato. Lo spazio gotico (nella definizione di Ruth D. Weston), al contrario, è irrazionale, caotico e imprevedibile. Se la critica ha generalmente posizionato l’autore in osservanza o trasgressione delle strutture mitiche tradizionali, è mia opinione che un approccio efficace debba contemplare una compresenza di questi paradigmi. L’opera di McCarthy è dedicata agli uomini nello spazio, ed è caratterizzata da un’erraticità di fondo che è un continuo tentativo di orientamento ideologico. Il vagabondaggio continuo dei personaggi diviene espressione di un’alienazione dal territorio che, storicamente, è stato per il Sud luogo di definizione identitaria e culturale, racchiusa nel concetto ubiquo e sfuggente di sense of place. La pastorale come mito e mappa, e il gotico come anti-mito e labirinto, forniscono dunque gli strumenti ermeneutici fondamentali per comprendere la dialettica tra spazio e personaggi in McCarthy, e, di conseguenza, l’evoluzione del tradizionale sense of place nella narrativa del Sud contemporaneo.

S'inspirant de l'inconscient collectif jungien, « détaché des sphères personnelles, exist[e] en marge de celles-ci, [...] possède un caractère tout à fait général et [...] ses contenus peuvent se rencontrer chez tous les êtres1 », le concept de la psychosphère, tel que présenté dans la télésérie américaine True Detective (HBO, 2014), en est la trame de fond narrative. Décrire l'invisible et l'intangible n'est possible que par l'étude de ses manifestations. Ce mémoire s'intéresse donc aux phénomènes et aux concepts qui rendent possible la représentation de ce que Ralph Noyes décrit comme un « vast and complex cauldron of ideas, memories, volitions, desires and all the other furniture of conscious experience and unconscious mental functioning2 ». Outre les questions plus larges de la généalogie du récit, la poétique narrative de la psychosphère relève essentiellement de l'archive: True Detective fait maintes allusions à la fiction gothique américaine. Celles-ci désignent à leur tour une explication transhistorique d'un retour à la violence ritualisée. Toutefois, cette explication, s'il en est une, demeure fragmentée, incohérente et ultimement différée.
Inspired by Jung's collective unconscious, the concept of a psychosphere, as seen in HBO's hit series True Detective (2014), underlines the narrative structure of the show. Describing the invisible and the intangible is only made possible by the study of its manifestations. This thesis analyses the phenomena and concept which enable the representation of what Ralph Noyes describes as a « vast and complex cauldron of ideas, memories, volitions, desires and all the other furniture of conscious experience and unconscious mental functioning3 ». Apart from broader questions of genealogy, the narrative poetics of the psychosphere are essentially archival: True Detective contains many allusions to previous Gothic fictions, which point toward an trans-historical explanation for the return of ritualized violence. However, any such explanation is fragmented, incoherent, and ultimately deferred.

Questa ricerca nasce dall’esigenza di colmare le lacune storiografiche riguardo il fenomeno monastico verginiano e la sua produzione artistica in Campania e Basilicata, la cui conoscenza è ancora frammentaria e caratterizzata da scarsa organicità, prendendo in esame globalmente testimonianze monumentali spesso non sufficientemente frequentate dagli studi scientifici, accanto ad altre già sondate, ma quasi sempre per alcuni aspetti di particolare rilevanza, quali gli arredi liturgici o le sculture architettoniche. L’obiettivo è stato quello di una rilettura complessiva, sia storica che artistica, volta a una migliore comprensione delle ragioni che hanno determinato la nascita e lo sviluppo di questo patrimonio di architettura e arte monastica. L’indagine è proceduta per nuclei territoriali, prediligendo un criterio prima topografico e poi cronologico, così da poter evidenziare sito per sito la continuità di un fenomeno caratterizzato sul piano materiale dall’evoluzione delle forme insediative col passaggio dall’eremitismo al cenobitismo, e da una storia monumentale che contempla, per gli insediamenti di rientrati nell’orbita della congregazione sullo scorcio del XII secolo, restauri e ampliamenti nel costante mantenimento dei luoghi delle origini. La scelta dell’area territoriale è stata dettata dalla particolare concentrazione di esperienze monastiche in una regione che in età antica era attraversata dal tracciato della Via Appia, nella quale, in epoca medievale, rientreranno le diocesi di Avellino, Nusco, Conza della Campania e Rapolla, importanti avamposti della nobiltà normanna, che sempre vi eserciterà il suo controllo politico tramite una salda organizzazione vescovile, l’affidamento di alte cariche a uomini di fiducia, la gestione strutturata delle attività agricole ed economiche in genere, e, infine, attraverso gli enti monastici, spesso strettamente connessi al potere signorile. La ricerca ha affrontato, concentrandosi sulle fondazioni abbaziali, i secoli che vanno dalla seconda metà del XII alla seconda metà del XIV, evidenziando i cambiamenti che gli eventi storici, politici e religiosi determinarono nel rapporto tra monasteri e territorio e nelle strutture architettoniche. Il termine cronologico ultimo della trattazione coincide, per l’abbazia di Montevergine, con la fine del dominio angioino, che rappresenta l’avvio di una stasi nella produzione artistica, che riprenderà vigore solo in epoca rinascimentale. Per le fondazioni di Santa Maria di Fontigliano, San Salvatore al Goleto, Sant’Ippolito a Monticchio e Santa Maria di Pierno, monasteri fortemente condizionati dalle vicende della nobiltà normanno-sveva, la ricerca si ferma di fatto alla metà del XIII secolo, dal momento che nessun indizio, né documentario né architettonico- artistico, permette di ipotizzare una rinnovata vitalità dopo l’avvento degli Angiò, quando le loro sorti cominceranno inevitabilmente a decadere. Tuttavia, l’innesto dell’esperienza monastica francescana in Basilicata nel primo XIV secolo rappresenterà, con l’esempio del superstite chiostro del monastero di Sant’Antonio a Muro Lucano, un’ultima traccia di continuità col linguaggio espressivo maturato nell’orbita dell’esperienza verginiana. Le componenti culturali che caratterizzano i monasteri della valle dell’Ofanto e del Partenio danno vita, dalla metà del XII secolo all’età angioina, a un originale percorso creativo in cui a un latente substrato autoctono si sommano progressivamente elementi allogeni, spesso incoraggiati da scelte collegabili a peculiari situazioni politico- istituzionali o agli orientamenti della committenza. La rete di monasteri e dipendenze gravitanti attorno alle fondazioni di Santa Maria di Montevergine e San Salvatore al Goleto, in sinergia con i vicini insediamenti benedettini, si era fatta più o meno consapevolmente centro catalizzatore di maestranze di provenienza eterogenea, sparse su tutto il territorio lucano e campano, con propaggini nella Puglia garganica, oltre che vivace recettore del gusto più in voga in determinati contesti storico-geografici.

In 'Political Atheism vs. The Divine Right of Kings,' I build on Thompson and Scrivener’s work analysing John Thelwall’s play 'The Fairy of the Lake' as a political allegory, arguing all religious symbolism in 'FL' to advance the traditionally Revolutionary thesis that “the King is not a God.” My first chapter contextualises Thelwall’s revival of 17th century radicalism during the French Revolution and its failure. My second chapter examines how Thelwall’s use of fire as a symbol discrediting the Saxons’ pagan notion of divine monarchy, also emphasises the idolatrous apotheosis of King Arthur. My third chapter deconstructs the Fairy of the Lake’s water and characterisation, and concludes her sole purpose to be to justify a Revolution beyond moral reproach. My fourth chapter traces how beer satirises Communion wine, among both pagans and Christians, in order to undermine any religion that could reinforce either divinity or the Divine Right of Kings.
A close reading of an all-but-forgotten Arthurian play as an allegory against the Divine Right of Kings.