Good and Evil Church: The Two Faces of Catholicism in Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer

Authors

  • Charlie Jorge Universidad Camilo José Cela

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37389/abei.v23i1.192580

Keywords:

Gothic, Catholicism, Ireland, Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer

Abstract

The Eighteenth Century saw the emergence of Gothic literature, for which the Catholic Church came to represent all the fears English society at large felt towards European continental ‘invasion’, an enemy at the gates. However, some of these novels, full of evil priests and nuns, also include the other side of the coin: religious characters who exert themselves in a Catholic life to find opportunities for exercising benevolence and charity to those in need.

Author Biography

  • Charlie Jorge, Universidad Camilo José Cela

    Charlie Jorge holds a PhD in Comparative Literature and Literary Studies from the University of the Basque Country. The topic of his thesis was a study in depth of the figure of the hero in Charles Robert Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer, a novel that forms the core of his research. He specializes in Gothic literature, Archetypal Studies and Irish Studies, and has been working for some years on the novels of Gothic authors such as Charles Maturin, Ann Radclife or Matthew Gregory Lewis. He has recently published some articles on the archetypes of the Terrible Mother in Irish Literature and the Scapegoat in Melmoth the Wanderer. He is also working on a new scholarly edition of Maturin’s The Milesian Chief for the University of Wales project Gothic Originals, and lectures on Comparative Literature at Universidad Camilo José Cela.

References

Baigent, Michael, and Richard Leigh. The Inquisition. Penguin Books, 2000.

Boran, Pat. A Short History of Dublin. Mercier Press, 2000.

Cirlot, Juan Eduardo. Diccionario de símbolos. Barcelona, Ed. Siruela, 2006.

Fitzgerald, Mary. “The Unveiling of Power: 19th Century Gothic Fiction in Ireland, England and America.” Literary Interrelations. Ireland, England and the World. Vol. 2. Comparison and Impact, edited by Wolfgang Zach and Heinz Kasok, Tübingen, Gunter Narr Verlag, 1987, pp. 15-25.

Foster, Robert Fitzroy. “Ascendancy and Union.” The Oxford History of Ireland, edited by Robert Fitzroy Foster, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 134-173.

Gillespie, Niall. “Irish Jacobin Gothic, c. 1796-1825.” Irish Gothics. Genres, Forms, Modes, and Traditions, 1760-1890, edited by Christina Morin and Niall Gillespie, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, pp. 58-73.

Hansen, Jim. Terror and Irish Modernism: The Gothic Tradition from Burke to Beckett. State University of New York Press, 2009.

Kelly, Jim. Charles Maturin: Authorship, Authenticity and the Nation. Four Courts Press, 2011.

Kramer, Dale. Charles Robert Maturin. New York, Twayne Publishers, 1973.

Maturin, Charles Robert. Melmoth the Wanderer. Edited by Chris Baldick, Oxford University Press, 1998.

Maturin, Charles Robert. Women; or, Pour et Contre. Philadelphia, Moses Thomas, 1818. 3 vols.

Miles, Robert. “Europhobia: The Catholic Other in Horace Walpole and Charles Maturin.”

European Gothic. A Spirited Exchange, 1760–1960, edited by Avril Horner, Manchester University Press, 2002, pp. 84-103.

Morin, Christina, and Niall Gillespie. “Introduction: De-Limiting the Irish Gothic.” Irish Gothics. Genres, Forms, Modes, and Traditions, 1760-1890, edited by Christina Morin and Niall Gillespie, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, pp. 1-12.

Lougy, Robert E. Charles Robert Maturin. Lewisburg, Bucknell University Press, 1975.

Peters, Edward. Inquisition. University of California Press, 1989.

Ranelagh, John O’Beirne. A Short History of Ireland. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Rawlings, Helen. The Spanish Inquisition. Blackwell, 2006.

Scott, Walter, and Charles Robert Maturin. The Correspondence. Edited by Fanny Elizabeth Ratchford, New York, Garland, 1980.

Downloads

Published

2021-01-14

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 1 (2021): ABEI Journal 23.1

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Charle Jorge

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Jorge, C. (2021). Good and Evil Church: The Two Faces of Catholicism in Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer. ABEI Journal, 23(1), 13-24. https://doi.org/10.37389/abei.v23i1.192580