Movement, Perception and Imagination: Feminising Cartography of the Gothic Home in Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and A Sicilian Romance
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Although earlier studies have highlighted the important relationship between space and the depiction of home in Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic novels, the significant connection between domestic space and character experience in her works remains underexplored. This article argues that in Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Romance and The Mysteries of Udolpho, the uncanny tension between the homely and the unhomely establishes spatial boundaries, such as internal versus external and familiar versus unfamiliar, that are crossed and redefined through character movement, perception and imagination. This dynamic is clarified through the concept of feminised cartography, in which heroines actively interweave with spatial presentation as they map and reconfigure the familiar and hidden, reshaping domestic borders and meaning. By synthesising insights from Gothic studies and spatial literary theory, the article reveals how Radcliffe’s depiction of home challenges binary spatial logics and anticipates later phenomenological approaches to spatiality. Ultimately, it argues that Radcliffe’s Gothic legacy lies in her ability to render space as a site of explorable and evolving meanings: a spatial poetics through which the Gothic home becomes a dynamic topography that navigates psychological and cultural entanglements.
Source: Women s Writing
Author: Esko Roininen
Institution: University of Helsinki
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7169516685
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