In the spring of 2023, Kungliga Operan in Stockholm, Sweden premiered their production of Stephen Sondheim's famous musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This study aims to analyze this production in regards to Mattias Fhyr's definition of the Gothic. It analyzes what gothic signs and themes are recognizable in the Kungliga Operan production of the musical and how they manifest on stage. The study applies the qualitative method of performance analysis, which uses a combination of semiotics and hermeneutics to analyze live performances. Semiotics is also used as the theoretical foundation of this essay. Fhyr's definition specifies that a gothic text depicts subjective worlds, that lack higher order and is characterized by an atmosphere of decay, destruction, and irresolvability, and that it contains labyrinthine qualities. Earlier research also shows that the Gothic can be found in almost all media, including theater. This study illustrates how this performance of Sweeney Todd contains and expresses the above mentioned themes. It also discusses the gothic genre's relationship with opera and comedy and how they are relevant in the performance. It explores the characters monstrous depictions, and examines different familial relations and themes in the musical, characteristic of the gothic genre. The study concludes that the Gothic can be found in the musical's set design and fictional locations, in the mood and atmosphere mostly created by the score, in the characters and their actions, as well as in the story itself.

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In an attempt better to understand the appeal of the Gothic novel during its initial appearance in eighteenth-century England, particularly that of the 'female Gothic'--a sub-genre recently declared by feminist critics such as Claire Kahane, Ellen Moers, and Tania Modleski--this essay considers three novels by Ann Radcliffe, possibly the best-known female writer of her time: The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), The Romance of the Forest (1791), and The Italian (1797). Beginning with an examination of Radcliffe's unique use of landscapes and her adoption of Burke's Sublime, I postulate a symbology and subtext which address the generally unacknowledged topics of female sexuality and female creativity. The representation of feminine desire, as well as the continued theme of the hidden woman artist, I argue, together comprise the 'hidden discourse' integral to the 'female Gothic' pioneered by Radcliffe. Bearing in mind the emergence in the later eighteenth-century of a large female audience for Radcliffe's novels, l analyse the different physical prospects and personalities associated with heroine and villain as politically polarized 'visions' of reality. The inevitable moral and aesthetic conflict of these visions culminates in the heroine's ultimate triumph over the villain and the patriarchal society he represents. Through this analysis of her fiction's hidden discourse, Radcliffe's contribution to the Gothic genre can be seen as politically subversive, her novels concealing a defiance of her male-dominated culture as well as containing an affirmation of identity for her female readers. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Thesis advisor: Christy Pottroff / Thesis advisor: Paul Lewis / In 1822 the Western world experienced a revolution in literature and archaeology when the Rosetta Stone was successfully translated, and a craze coined Egyptomania took over the Western world. American literature—ranging from newspaper articles, travel narratives, short fiction, and books concerning ethnology and race science—became inundated with discussion of the material culture of ancient Egypt. As authors interacted with the material culture, they began to question who the ancient Egyptians were and how they managed to create such monuments. Many American authors struggled to comprehend how such ancient people were so advanced in methods of art and engineering, thus thwarting the current nineteenth-century ideals of progress. Especially among white Americans, there was anxiety that the ancient Egyptians were not European, leading to an overall fear of Oriental superiority. My aim here is not to explore the effects of Egyptomania in general on American culture, but rather to analyze how specific artifacts, monuments, and mummies were received and adapted by nineteenth-century authors. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: English.

In 1508 Albrecht Dürer, famed German printmaker and Nürnberg citizen, was commission by Jakob Heller of Frankfurt to paint a large altarpiece for a new church. The Heller Altarpiece was the second commission of the printer since his training in Venice, Italy (1504-1507) to paint like an Italian master. In order to prepare for such a commission, Dürer spent over a year creating drawings of black ink and white chalk on blue Venetian paper to serve as inspiration for the large painting. However once the painting was complete, the artist held onto these ink and chalk drawings as part of his personal collection of art. It is from this group of drawings, that the now iconic Betende Hände had its start. Today the image of two praying hands is appropriated for posters, pins, headstones, and even tattoos. The original context as a personal drawing kept by the artist, Albrecht Dürer, is completely divorced from its contemporary use. It is thesis's argument that Betende Hände was not only a very personal drawing for Dürer, but also a moment of self-fashioning, metaphorical experimentation, and abstract self-portraiture. Rather than simply representing prayer, Dürer's Betende Hände captures his desire to become like unto Christ. The composition appears simple, but upon further inspection reveals a unique quality and form borrowed from the Gothic architecture of the German Hallenkirche. The fingers extend vertically like rib vaults from the palms only to touch at the points giving the hands an overall triangular composition. With this drawing, Dürer experimented with his metaphorical self beyond any other point in his career, and becomes like Christ. Only the form of Christ that Dürer choose after which to fashion himself was the architectural form of Christ or the Gothic Church. Therefore this thesis will trace the emergence of Dürer's metaphor of body as architecture via the cultural environment of pre-Reformation Germany and popular religious texts that related the body of the worshipper to the church form. As a result, Betende Hände gives unique insight into the identity of a Catholic Dürer.

My thesis draws connections between today's network society and the workings of gothic literature in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century. Just as our society is formed and affected by the flow of information, the eighteenth-century culture of sensibility was formed by the merging and flow of scientific "technology" (or new scientific discoveries) and societal norms and rules. Gothic literature was born out of this science-society network, and in many ways embodies the ruptures implicit in it. Although gothic literature is not a network in the same sense as informationalism and the culture of sensibility are, gothic literature works according to the logic of networks on both a microscopic and macroscopic level. These correlations between networks and the gothic potentially illuminate two of gothic literature's strange and signature qualities: the subversive nature of the gothic convention, as well as the incredible—and almost inexplicable, considering its libeled and unpopular reputation—staying power of the genre. In Chapter One, I compare the society of informationalism and the eighteenth-century society of sensibility in order to extrapolate a three-pronged logic of networks: networks are subversive, networks are exclusive, and networks are based on codes. In Chapter Two I trace this logic through eighteenth-century gothic conventions as they are portrayed in Ann Radcliffe's The Italian and Matthew Lewis's The Monk. This shows how the gothic, like network society, depends on the paradox of containing the ideology that it subverts. In Chapter Three I investigate this paradox on a macroscopic level by examining the connections between "tales of terror" in Blackwood's Magazine and gothic literature in both the pre-Romantic and Victorian literature. By both adopting and subverting the conventions of Radcliffean gothic, these tales are a key node in the web of the gothic stretching backwards to into the eighteenth century, forwards into the nineteenth century, and beyond.

This thesis explores the insider/outsider dynamic experienced by individuals as they enter diverse social situations. The shift from insider to outsider is evoked through an art installation of 18 sculptures drawing influence from "goth" subculture, as the viewer enters and interacts with the art space. The subjects of culture and identity are discussed as they pertain to insider/outsider status.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine how guilt and shame act as engines of social control in two Gothic narratives of the 1790s, how they tie into the terror and horror modes of the genre, and how they give rise to two distinct narrative models, one centered on punishment and the other on rehabilitation. The premise of the paper is that both Matthew G. Lewis's The Monk and Ann Radcliffe's The Italian harness radically different emotional responses, one that demands the punishment of the aberrant individual and the other that reveres the reformative power of domestic felicity. The purposes of both responses are to civilize readers and their respective representations of the Holy Office of the Inquisition are central to this process. I examine the role of the Inquisition in The Monk and contrast it with the depiction of the same institution in The Italian. Lewis's book subordinates the ecclesiastical world to the authority of the aristocracy and uses graphic scenes of torture to support conservative forms of social control based on shame. The Italian, on the other hand, depicted the Inquisition as a conspiratorial body that causes Radcliffe's protagonists, and by extension her readers, to question their complicity in oppressive systems of social control and look for alternative means to punishment. The result is a push toward rehabilitation that is socially progressive but questions the English Enlightenment's promotion of the carceral.

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) set Standard Highway Alphabet, or Highway Gothic, as the standard font for all American roadway signs in 1966. Since then, that standard has not changed, with all signs following the norm. In the 1980s, new retro-reflective sheeting introduced on American roadways caused Highway Gothic to be more difficult to read, due to the light "halo" effect caused around the letters, or halation. Recently, more studies have been conducted to improve the overall legibility of Highway Gothic. One study found that its legibility could greatly improve if it's size was increased by 20%. This, however, is extremely unlikely, since increasing the font size would also entail an increase in the physical signs lining roadways. In the 1990s, a new font was created, Clearview, to help combat the negative effects of Standard Highway Alphabet. This font received interim approval in 2004, which was removed in 2016 due to ambiguous results from studies as to whether it was more beneficial than Highway Gothic. It was reinstated two years later, in 2018. Legibility has five different components: retro-reflectivity, irradiation, luminance, contrast, and font design. Understanding these five components, and the benefits of each, can lead to the betterment of the font design on highway signs. This study consisted of two web-based tests. In the first test, the "Letters Test", participants would see a character slowly increasing in size on the screen. Once they could decipher the character, they would click the screen and input the character shown. On the second test, the "Words Test", participants would follow the same instructions, albeit with words in place of characters. There were four fonts tested, on both a positive and negative contrasts. The positive contrast consisted of a green background with a white font, and the negative contrast was a white background with a black font. The four tested fonts were E Modified Base, Alpha Two FHWA E Narrow, Alpha Two FHWA D, and Alpha Two FHWA C, named Base, Narrow, D-Altered, and C-Altered respectively. Forty-two participants participated in both tests. For the "Letters Test", the smallest average font size was the narrow font, followed by the base and D-altered. For the "Words Test", the smallest average font size was the base font, followed by the narrow, D-altered, and C-altered fonts. Overall, the base and narrow fonts took up more space than the D-altered and C-altered fonts. It is recommended that field tests are conducted with these fonts, taking into account the space that they take up, not the font size. This analysis could help to determine whether or not the altered fonts are as legible, or even more legible, than the base and narrow fonts when occupying the same space. / Master of Science / The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) set Standard Highway Alphabet, or Highway Gothic, as the standard font for all American roadway signs in 1966. Since then, that standard has not changed, with all signs following the norm. In the 1980s, new retro-reflective sheeting introduced on American roadways caused Highway Gothic to be more difficult to read, due to the light "halo" effect caused around the letters, or halation. Recently, more studies have been conducted to improve the overall legibility of Highway Gothic. One study found that its legibility could greatly improve if it's size was increased by 20%. This, however, is extremely unlikely, since increasing the font size would also entail an increase in the physical signs lining roadways. In the 1990s, a new font was created, Clearview, to help combat the negative effects of Standard Highway Alphabet. This font received interim approval in 2004, which was removed in 2016 due to ambiguous results from studies as to whether it was more beneficial than Highway Gothic. It was reinstated two years later, in 2018. Legibility has five different components: retro-reflectivity, irradiation, luminance, contrast, and font design. Understanding these five components, and the benefits of each, can lead to the betterment of the font design on highway signs. This study consisted of two web-based tests. In the first test, the "Letters Test", participants would see a character slowly increasing in size on the screen. Once they could decipher the character, they would click the screen and input the character shown. On the second test, the "Words Test", participants would follow the same instructions, albeit with words in place of characters. There were four fonts tested, on both a positive and negative contrasts. The positive contrast consisted of a green background with a white font, and the negative contrast was a white background with a black font. The four tested fonts were E Modified Base, Alpha Two FHWA E Narrow, Alpha Two FHWA D, and Alpha Two FHWA C, named Base, Narrow, D-Altered, and C-Altered respectively. Forty-two participants participated in both tests. For the "Letters Test", the smallest average font size was the narrow font, followed by the base and D-altered. For the "Words Test", the smallest average font size was the base font, followed by the narrow, D-altered, and C-altered fonts. Overall, the base and narrow fonts took up more space than the D-altered and C-altered fonts. It is recommended that field tests are conducted with these fonts, taking into account the space that they take up, not the font size. This analysis could help to determine whether or not the altered fonts are as legible, or even more legible, than the base and narrow fonts when occupying the same space.

Que ce soit en littérature ou en cinéma, bon nombre d’études sur le gothique ont été menées au fil des années. Dans notre thèse, nous nous efforcerons de démontrer la corrélation entre le gothique et la nécessité de certaines formes de transgression, de radicalisme (artistique, esthétique et politique) lorsqu’un sujet (personnage) se retrouve en situation d’altérité. Ces formes de transgression se font par l’entremise du surnaturel que permet le genre du gothique. Ce dernier se voit entre autres marqué par la transgression des limites et des frontières. L’examen de ladite transgression représentera une part importante de notre étude. Les monstres que nous retrouvons dans les œuvres gothiques font fréquemment figure de traduction de bouleversements politiques ou d’inquiétudes sociales face aux divergences par rapport à la norme. Nous nous pencherons donc sur la notion du corps « monstrueux » comme site d’altérité et de menaces surnaturelles. Ce corps peut être individuel, mais aussi social. Dans le cadre de nos analyses filmiques, nous adopterons une posture postmoderne et posthumaniste, voire transhumaniste. Ayant déterminé au préalable ce que nous entendons par gothique, altérité et transgression, cette posture constituera celle adoptée lors de notre première partie. Tout d’abord, nous ferons en sorte de bien définir ces différents concepts afin de mieux les utiliser dans notre étude de certains films gothiques contemporains et des personnages qu’ils mettent en scène. Dans notre deuxième partie, certains de ces personnages nous permettront de traiter de la question du handicap, notamment en lien avec le gothique du 19e siècle et le corps « abject ». Le modèle médical du handicap sera capital dans l’établissement du rapport entre le corps ayant des limitations fonctionnelles (handicapé) et celui qui est monstrueux, difforme, etc. Nous constaterons qu’il reste un vieux fond de religiosité dans le regard sur le handicap même si le milieu de la réadaptation a pris le relais des « bonnes œuvres » depuis plus d’une centaine d’années. Incontestablement, certains tabous demeurent tenaces. L’un de ceux-ci concerne la sexualité, bien que ces derniers changent au cours des décennies et de l’évolution humaine. Comme nous le verrons dans notre thèse, il va sans dire que ce tabou concerne autant la sexualité en général que celle des personnes en situation de handicap lorsqu’elle n’est pas réduite au silence ou à des déviances. Conséquemment, des œuvres gothiques ont mis en lumière des préoccupations en lien avec le genre, l’âge, les classes sociales, la race, l’orientation sexuelle et la santé sexuelle. Nous nous jetterons plus précisément un éclairage sur l’handiphilie (une attirance sexuelle pour le handicap) en brossant un portrait d’autres paraphilies au préalable, dont le BDSM (bondage, discipline, domination, soumission, sadomasochisme). Jugeant que l’handiphilie est sous-jacente dans certaines œuvres de notre étude, nous proposerons une nouvelle lecture de films gothiques contemporains tels que An American Werewolf in Paris (1997) de Waller, Underworld (2003) de Wiseman, Underworld : Rise of the Lycans de Tatopoulos, Kiss of the Damned (2012) de Cassavetes et The Shape of Water (2017) de Del Toro. / Whether in literature or cinema, many studies of the Gothic have been carried out over the years. In our thesis, we shall strive to demonstrate the correlation between the Gothic and the need for certain forms of transgression, of radicalism (artistic, aesthetic and political) when a subject (character) finds himself in a situation of otherness. These forms of transgression are achieved through the supernatural, which the Gothic genre makes possible. Among other things, the latter is marked by the transgression of limits and boundaries. Examining this transgression will be an important part of our study. The monsters we find in gothic works frequently represent the translation of political upheavals or social anxieties about deviations from the norm. We’ll be looking at the notion of the “monstrous” body as a site of otherness and supernatural threats. This body can be individual, but also social. For the purposes of our filmic analyses, we will adopt a postmodern and posthumanist, even transhumanist, stance. Having previously determined what we mean by gothic, otherness and transgression, this will be the stance adopted in our first section. We will begin by defining these concepts so as to be able to use them in our study of certain contemporary gothic films and the characters they portray. In our second part, we’ll use some of these characters to address the issue of disability, particularly in relation to the 19th-century Gothic and the “abject” body. The medical model of disability will be crucial in establishing the relationship between the body with functional limitations (handicapped) and the body that is monstrous, deformed, etc. We’ll see that there’s still an old-fashioned religiosity in the way we look at disability, even if the rehabilitation community has been taking over from “good works” for over a hundred years. Unquestionably, certain taboos remain tenacious. One of these concerns sexuality, although this has changed over the decades as a result of human evolution. As we will see in our thesis, it goes without saying that this taboo concerns both sexuality in general and that of people with disabilities, when the latter is not reduced to silence or deviance. As a result, Gothic works have highlighted concerns about gender, age, social class, race, sexual orientation and sexual health. We’ll take a closer look at devoteeism (a sexual attraction to disability), by looking at other paraphilias beforehand, including BDSM (bondage, discipline, domination, submission, sadomasochism). Judging that devoteeism underlies certain works in our study, we will propose a new reading of contemporary gothic films such as Waller’s An American Werewolf in Paris (1997), Wiseman’s Underworld (2003), Tatopoulos’ Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Cassavetes’ Kiss of the Damned (2012) and Del Toro’s The Shape of Water (2017).