In “God’s Funeral”, A.N. Wilson asserts the nineteenth century’s uncertainty over the literal truth of the Bible led to symptoms of disturbance and a ‘deep sense (personal, political, social) of dissolution’(11). Many Victorians saw "The Death of God” as a symptom of sickness of society: Western materialism and scientific rationalism had led to a society which had lost, not only a sense of the sublime, but its moral cohesion and unity. It had become, in a sense, the Devil’s playground…
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Victorian and the gothic rise of literature in Corelli's stories
Part of Victorian literature was the rise of the gothic novel. After reading a gothic short story, parellels were drawn between telelvison programs such as "Meduim", "Ghost Whisperer" and "Ghostly Encounters" and novels existing during the Victorian age. The similarities are everywhere. Corelli is one author who borrows from the gothic writings that appeared during that time period. One conventions Corelli, like so many other writers of her time uses was that of the unknown. Society as a whole constantly suspects the unknown, the stranger, as the primary target of suspicion. In fact, Lucio, in "The Sorrows of Satan", is the epitome of a foreign stranger. No one (but the author) knows his background, though, as we witness, Lucio says and does things throughout the novel that put attention on himself.
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