Fashioning the gothic : interpreting the proto-gothic mode in Thomas Lodge's a margarite of America

This thesis contributes to the rising field of Renaissance-Gothic studies, in which scholars have been examining a selection of the early modern period’s literature and theatre from the perspective of Gothic studies. These scholars make links between conventions recognized as characteristic within the Gothic genre, and certain narrative devices, tropes, settings, and character types present in many Renaissance texts. While most of the existing studies focus on drama, a small amount of research exists on other literary genres. My research is significant within this field of study because it will further explore the connections between early modern revenge tragedy and Gothic literature by branching out from drama to prose fiction. This thesis focusses on the proto-Gothic characteristics of Thomas Lodge’s 1596 romance, A Margarite of America; I argue that Lodge’s text ought to be included as part of a Gothic trajectory in literature because it exhibits many characteristics that have been identified in early modern texts that align with the development of the Gothic mode. For example, the duplicitous and tyrannical antagonist, the naive and vulnerable maiden-protagonist, the narrative’s thinly veiled critique of its author’s contemporary culture, an emphasis on theatrical or self-conscious personae, and other thematic and generic elements share affinities with eighteenth-century Gothic literature and with those early modern texts that have already been established as proto-Gothic. Lodge’s perversion of the romance genre, his villain’s relentless wickedness and his heroine’s tragic, unquestioning trust (to name three key points of my analysis), position A Margarite as Lodge’s ambivalent response to his cultural moment and align the text with Gothic motifs, themes, and subtexts. I compare Lodge’s text to Matthew Lewis’s Gothic novel, The Monk (1796) through in-depth analyses of characters, themes, and motifs, which contribute to identifying the proto-Gothic mode in Lodge’s narrative. Finally, Stephen Greenblatt’s concept of “self-fashioning” is integral to this thesis because it is relevant to scholars’ interpretations of early modern revenge tragedy, essential to the courtly persona that Lodge criticizes, and pertinent to the eighteenth-century Gothic villain’s carefully constructed persona.Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)Graduat