Gothic Elements In The Big House

As a of a victim of colonization, Ireland has a long history of patriotic writers that comment on the effects of British colonialism, as well as themes of nationalism and conservatism through their writings. The introduction of Gothic literature, and its fearful conventions of the supernatural and the uncanny, has allowed Irish writers to align nationalist motifs within their texts through a more analogous narrative. As Laura Doyle writes, “The Gothic text has been shown to represent colonialism 's crimes through its literary tropes of imprisonment, terror, rape, and tyranny” (513). However, a number of Anglo-Irish writers engage with the genre, thus forcing the allegorical themes and content of Irish Gothic writing to be reconsidered with new ideologies in mind. Irish Anglicans represent a class of people conflicted with their identities. Being split between the identity of a colonial oppressive force while inhabiting …show more content…
As Eóin Flannery …show more content…
Thus, the genre of Gothic fiction persists as both a means for Irish Anglicans to represent, and explore, their muddled perceptions of themselves. The conventions of Irish Gothic literature allow room for ambiguity and analogy in which Irish Anglican authors have used to represent their fears and perpetual search for belonging. In their lack of definability, strange and foreboding weather, decaying houses of the colonial past, and supernatural beings are all indicative of fears the Irish Anglicans possessed concerning alienation and isolation amongst a land in which their very occupancy of became