Abstract

The Gothic is the site par excellence in which to observe - and perhaps even diagnose - irrationality and pathological disturbance, but the experience of reading Gothic literature insistently suggests that there is no secure position for the interpreter to occupy that remains safely outside the textual madness that is witnessed. This essay explores the compelling demands that literary madness places upon protagonists, narrators, and readers, and examines Gothic texts - Poe's 'The Fall of the House of Usher', Bram Stoker's Dracula, and M. R. James's 'A Warning to the Curious' - that elicit in varying degrees the madness of interpretation.