This thesis addresses the central role of the haunted house in mid-to-late Victorian Gothic texts. It argues that haunting in fiction derives from distinct architectural and spatial traits that the middle-class Victorian home possessed. These design qualities both reflected and reinforced current social norms, and anxiety about the latter surfaced in Gothic texts. In this interdisciplinary study, literary analysis works alongside spatial examination, under the premise that literature is a space that can be penetrated and deciphered in the same way that buildings are texts that can be read and interpreted. This work is divided into two main sections, with the first three chapters introducing theoretical, historical and architectural notions that provide a background to the literary works to be discussed. The first chapter presents various theorists’ notions behind haunting and the convergence of spectrality and space, giving rise to the discussion of domestic haunting and its appeal. The second chapter examines the Crystal Palace as the icon of public space in Victorian times, its capacity for haunting, as well as its ability to frame the domestic both socially and historically. The third chapter focuses on the prototype of private space at the time—the middle-class home—in order to highlight the specificity of this dwelling, both as an architectural and symbolic entity. The second section also consists of three chapters, dedicated to the “dissection” of the haunted house, divided into three different areas: liminal, secret, and surrounding space. The fourth chapter examines works where marginal space, in the shape of hallways and staircases, is the site of intense haunting. A novel by Richard Marsh and stories by Bulwer-Lytton, Algernon Blackwood and W.W. Jacobs are analyzed here. The fifth chapter is a journey through rooms and secretive space of the spectral home; works by authors such as Wilkie Collins, J.H. Riddell and Sheridan Le Fanu are considered in order to argue that the home’s exceptional compartmentalization and its concern for secrecy translated effortlessly into Gothic fiction. The final chapter addresses an integral yet external part of the Victorian home—the grounds. Gardens in works by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Margaret Oliphant, M.R. James, and Oscar Wilde are inspected, proving Gothic fiction’s disregard for boundaries and its ability to exceed the parameters of the home.

In contemporary America the haunted house appears regularly as a figure in literature, film, and tourism. The increasing popularity of the haunted house is in direct correlation with the disintegration of the home as a refuge from the harsh elements of the world. The mass media populates society with dark images and subjects, portraying America as a dark place to live. Americans create fictional narratives of terror and violence as a means of coping with their own modern horrors. Their horrors are psychologically displaced within these narratives. The haunted house is therefore a manifestation of contemporary anxieties surrounding the dissolution of the home, a symbol of the infusion of terror and violence into domestic space.

When an aspiring interior designer embattled with insecurity about her dirt poor upbringing becomes enamored with her fiancé's family estate–the wedding venue–she finds herself embroiled in the literal rot and decay festering within the dream location after visions of a ghost threaten her fairytale ending.

This thesis is focused on the intersection between horror, gender and politics in American haunted house films. Taking a “spherological” approach, the author argues that horror is evidence of a spherical breakdown, or a violation of existential space. Applying this approach to Hollywood haunted house films, the author demonstrates how those movies have, in the years since 2005, responded to a masculinity crisis discourse: by figuring haunting as a horrific disruption of paternal authority by violent masculine entities and powerful female ones, film-makers situate the movies in that discourse. By positing “security moms” (Grewal: 2006) and “paternal sovereigns” (Gunn: 2008) as responses to the crisis, the films construct a domestic space where women are militant mothers and men are sovereigns. Because the family is an important metaphor for the American nation (Lakoff: 2002), this construction can be seen as part of a paternalistic national politics. Cette thèse se concentre sur l’intersection de l’horreur, le genre et la politique dans des filmes américains de maison hantée. En prenant une approche “sphérologique,” l’auteur constate que l’éclatement d’une sphère existentielle s’accompagne du sentiment d’horreur. Concernant les films de maison hantée, l’auteur démontre comment ces objets-là se sont adressés, depuis 2005, au discours de la crise de masculinité: en figurant l’hantise comme la subversion de l’autorité du père par des menaces masculins et féminins, les réalisateurs mettent les films dans la trajectoire du discours de la crise. À fin de répondre à la crise, les films construisent l’espace doméstique de façon que les femmes soient des mères militantes (les “security moms”) (Grewal: 2006) et les pères soient souverains (les “souverains paternels”) (Gunn: 2008). Finalement, car la famille reste une métaphore importante de la nation Américaine (Lakoff: 2002), cette construction peut être vue comme partie de la paternalisme nationale.

This thesis is focused on the intersection between horror, gender and politics in American haunted house films. Taking a “spherological” approach, the author argues that horror is evidence of a spherical breakdown, or a violation of existential space. Applying this approach to Hollywood haunted house films, the author demonstrates how those movies have, in the years since 2005, responded to a masculinity crisis discourse: by figuring haunting as a horrific disruption of paternal authority by violent masculine entities and powerful female ones, film-makers situate the movies in that discourse. By positing “security moms” (Grewal: 2006) and “paternal sovereigns” (Gunn: 2008) as responses to the crisis, the films construct a domestic space where women are militant mothers and men are sovereigns. Because the family is an important metaphor for the American nation (Lakoff: 2002), this construction can be seen as part of a paternalistic national politics. Cette thèse se concentre sur l’intersection de l’horreur, le genre et la politique dans des filmes américains de maison hantée. En prenant une approche “sphérologique,” l’auteur constate que l’éclatement d’une sphère existentielle s’accompagne du sentiment d’horreur. Concernant les films de maison hantée, l’auteur démontre comment ces objets-là se sont adressés, depuis 2005, au discours de la crise de masculinité: en figurant l’hantise comme la subversion de l’autorité du père par des menaces masculins et féminins, les réalisateurs mettent les films dans la trajectoire du discours de la crise. À fin de répondre à la crise, les films construisent l’espace doméstique de façon que les femmes soient des mères militantes (les “security moms”) (Grewal: 2006) et les pères soient souverains (les “souverains paternels”) (Gunn: 2008). Finalement, car la famille reste une métaphore importante de la nation Américaine (Lakoff: 2002), cette construction peut être vue comme partie de la paternalisme nationale.

S’inscrivant parmi les travaux actuels sur le lieu, le présent mémoire s'intéresse à la représentation de la maison dans les romans québécois contemporains, notamment chez Catherine Mavrikakis, Élise Turcotte et Ying Chen. Dans le cadre de cette lecture sociocritique, le sociogramme de la Maison est la notion opératoire retenue, les deux composantes conflictuelles du noyau étant le « Home sweet home » et la « maison hantée ». Le travail de déchiffrement s'appuie ainsi sur les caractéristiques de ce binôme réfractées par les textes. À une époque caractérisée par un « hyper-investissement de l'espace privé », pour reprendre l'expression de Gilles Deleuze, la maison dans les romans québécois des années 2000 se révèle plutôt comme un espace marqué par la hantise, loin de l'image rassurante de la maison-nid véhiculée par certains discours en circulation dans la société. Fantômes et spectres envahissent ce lieu de l'intimité et deviennent des figures du quotidien, révélant ainsi le profond malaise des habitants et le refoulement d'un passé problématique. Le sujet se trouve alors confronté à une « inquiétante étrangeté » à l'intérieur même de son foyer. / As part of the topical writings on the concept of place, this Master’s thesis applies the sociocriticism tools to the analysis of the representation of the home in contemporary Quebec novels, especially those of Catherine Mavrikakis, Elise Turcotte and Ying Chen. This analysis focuses on the Home sociogram as the core operational concept, its two main conflicting components being the "Home Sweet Home" and the "Haunted House". The deciphering work leans on the characteristics of this couple as expressed in the selected writings. While our time is defined by a "private space hyper-investment", as expressed by Gilles Deleuze, the house in the Quebec novels of the 2000's appears more as a location imprinted by the haunting, far from the reassuring image of the home sweet home as advertised in our society. Ghosts and wraiths invade this intimate space and become actors of the everyday life, revealing the profound unease of the occupants and the repression of a problematic past. The subject is therefore confronted to a "disturbing strangeness" in the heart of its home.