“Journeys End In Lovers Meeting”: The Spectral Uncanny in Carmilla and The Haunting Of Hill House

Abstract

I will analyze the spectral uncanny in Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson focusing on spectral spaces, spectral and uncanny bodies, spectral and uncanny hauntings of the mind, uncanny visitations, the spectral mother, and spectral courtships. The uncanny visitations and phantasmagoria blur the boundaries between the terror of the mind and the horror of reality, making the protagonists of both novels unable to distinguish reality from dreams or imagination, affecting the characters' sense of self and leading them to merge with the supernatural. There is an equal longing and abjection of the maternal together with transgressive desire. Homoeroticism and passionate love erupt from contact with the spectres and the journey of both protagonists ends upon meeting their lover, either in death or in a perpetual haunting. I seek to demonstrate that a subtype of the uncanny, the spectral uncanny, can be recognized as part of some Gothic texts which is used to represent and challenge contemporary anxieties through an ephemeral creature. Both novels share the manifestation of the spectral uncanny, the spatial, temporal, and authorial differences, from the Old World to the New World, from the 19th century to the 20th, from a male author to a female author. The fear of the unknown and of cultural taboos prevails from text to text, making the spectral uncanny at the heart of gothic anxieties, both as cause, as a mirror, and as a relief.