The Neo-Gothic Narrative In Haunting Of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson has always been regarded as the beginning of contemporary American Gothic,but its new Gothic narrative features are rarely studied.Based on the close reading of the text,this paper deeply analyzes and discusses the new Gothic narrative of the novel and its aesthetic features,and attempt to provide a bit of my own thinking in the trend of the reassessment of Jackson.This paper consists of three parts.The first part includes the introduction and the first chapter,which respectively introduces the research studies of the novel,the American Gothic tradition and Shirley Jackson’s correspondence with the expression of Gothic.By comparing the writing theme and personal experience of the author,it is clearly that out of the interest of strange things and the sensitivity to the dark side of human nature,Jackson has a deep recognition with the Gothic tradition.And the confined life,the strained relationship between mother and daughter and mental diseases,also make Jackson look at life from Gothic view.The second part is the main part of the thesis and include three chapters.The second chapter find that in spite of Jackson used some traditional factors,such as gothic characters,the terrorist atmosphere creation and the subject about the imprisoned,while totally building a different new gothic world.She consciously weakens the characterization of facial makeup,and more internalizes the contradictions and conflicts to show the spiritual strength of the characters.In Jackson’s works,the "demonic figures" who used to be strong and cruel become the seducers of the protagonist’s inner desires.The beautiful and weak female victims become psychopaths who cannot distinguish good from evil and walk between the symbolic and imaginary worlds.And the direct narration of the supernatural scene has become the protagonist’s hallucinations and haunted traumatic memories;the previous confinement of the body in the physical sense has become a reflection on the subject of the mind to various texts.The Jackson’s new Gothic narrative,on the basis of inheriting the traditional Gothic elements,not only adds the aesthetic connotation of Gothic creation,but also expands the depth of its thoughts.The third chapter focuses on the analysis of the new Gothic narrative technique of the the novel.Between the lines of the novel,the gothic characteristics is clearly and obviously,but under the surface of the gothic narrative,there is also a trauma narrative,which reflects the typical double text characteristics.Besides,the intertextuality between Gothic novels and fairy tales,and the slide between the narrator’s perspective from the third person omniscient narration to the protagonist’s internal perspective,all reflect the obvious post-modern characteristics.The fourth chapter on the basis of the first two chapters,further excavating the aesthetic significance and far-reaching influence of the new gothic narrative in the novel.The creative practice about exploring the source of fear and showing the spiritual world,completed the shift from the sublime to the bizarre of the gothic aesthetics.At the same time,in the process of showing the mental picture of era,Jackson’s writing techniques in the novel also made a profound impact on many later gothic writers.The third part is the conclusion.Through the study of the new gothic narrative of the novel,it is not difficult to find that Jackson was always trying to pursuit the text experiment and the writing skills,and it is far beyond a popular gothic writers.In fact,Jackson’s literary status has been greatly underestimated,and it is a great prove that the western academia gradually pay more and more attention on evaluating Jackson.