Mistaken for Ghosts: The Gothic Trope of Catholic Superstition in Conrad and Ford’s ”Romance”

Anne Keithline

Abstract


A perennially fruitful activity in Gothic studies is to track the development of Gothic tropes as popular literature evolves. Joseph Conrad’s career, which spanned Victorianism and early Modernism, provides examples of the evolution of certain Gothic conventions between early- and late-career work. Conrad’s collaboration with Ford Madox Ford on Romance (1903) is an early example of Conrad’s exposure to, and use of, Gothic tropes, especially relating to Catholic ghost-seeing. This paper demonstrates similarities between Romance’s uses of the trope of Catholic superstition and those of three classic Gothic novels, and also outlines the trope’s lasting effect on Conrad’s later work.


Keywords


ghost, Catholicism, Conrad, superstition, Gothic

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2019.43.2.87-96
Date of publication: 2019-07-03 11:00:38
Date of submission: 2018-07-24 22:51:16


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