Unleashed academics, tutors, and ornamental hermits Alice and Rowan do a deep dive into dark hero archetypes on a semi-weekly basis.
On this episode they consider Matthew Lewis' infamous The Monk (1796)
The pair discuss Matthew Lewis' life, writing, legacy, and influence. Rowan gives an excellent summary for those of you who haven't read the book or got lost in the cast of characters. They examine Lewis' contribution to Gothic tropes and whether or not Ambrosio is a sympathetic hero or a Gothic Villain (or perhaps both). They also consider one of their favourite characters—Matilda—and her role and characterisation in the narrative.
Next time, they discuss William Beckford's Vathek
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Relevant Sources:
Adriano, Joseph. Our Ladies of Darkness Feminine Daemonology in Male Gothic Fiction. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993.
Blakemore, Steven. "Matthew Lewis's Black Mass: Sexual, Religious Inversion In "The Monk"." Studies in the novel 30, no. 4 (1998): 521–39.
Brewer, William. "Transgendering in Matthew Lewis's the Monk." Gothic Studies 6, no. 2 (2004): 192–207.
Clery, E. J. The Rise of Supernatural Fiction, 1762-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Faxneld, Per. Satanic Feminism : Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Macdonald, David Lorne. Monk Lewis: A Critical Biography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.
Miles, Robert. Gothic Writing, 1750-1820: A Genealogy. 2nd ed. New York: Manchester University Press, 2002.
Thorslev, Peter L. The Byronic Hero. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1965.
