The Gothic

About the lecture

In this module, we think about the relationship between The Duchess of Malfi and the Gothic. We will see that although the Gothic did not emerge as a literary genre until the eighteenth century, Webster’s early seventeenth-century play contains many instances of double-ness and twinning that can be usefully read as ‘Gothic’ motifs.

About the lecturer

Lisa Hopkins is Professor of English at Sheffield Hallam University. Her principal research interests are in Renaissance drama, especially Marlowe, Shakespeare and Ford. She is also interested in the influence of Darwin on fiction, adaptation, and the work of Bram Stoker. At the moment, she is completing a book on From the Romans to the Normans on the English Renaissance Stage. She is a co-editor of Shakespeare, the journal of the British Shakespeare Association, and co-editor of the Arden Early Modern Drama Guides.