A Feminine Gothic Revival: The Haunting of Shirley Jackson and Toni Morrison

In the realm of Gothic literature, the main characters typically involve a helpless woman in the clutches of her male assailant. Critics have long established that the traditional Gothic genre is considered a male-dominated discipline fixated on ideas of power, control, and submission. This essay argues that Shirley Jackson and Toni Morrison separate from this trope and invent the haunted heroine, a leading lady so haunted by the past, relationships, and emotions that through unique character development, insidious use of dread, and malicious paranormal occurrences create a nouveau dichotomy within Gothic literature. This essay is a close reading of two primary texts: Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and Morrison’s Beloved (1987) to contend that the human condition is a haunted condition. Through their renaissance of Gothic literature, they force a mirror up to society and history, and by their work we are forced to face our own hauntings