Castles, the gothic genre and travel writing: spatial considerations on Washington Irving’s The Alhambra

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/diablotexto.5.13853

Keywords:

Castles, Gothic genre, Travel writing, Washington Irving, Alhambra

Abstract

From the founding moment of the gothic genre, with the (pre)Romantic recovery of medieval imagery, castles have been one of the privileged spaces for terror and the supernatural; particularly, castles located in Southern and Eastern Europe (Spain, Italy, Romania), i.e., in a Catholic, Southern and “peripheric” Europe, one that Romantic travelers visited in order to discover a strange “Other” that was geographically close to them. In this article we will take Washington Irving’s The Alhambra (1832), in particular the chapter “The author’s chamber / The mysterious chambers”, as a starting point to reflect on the crossing between gothic and travel literature, studying the role that space plays in the configuration of both genres.

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References

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Published

2019-06-08

How to Cite

Pérez Isasi, S. (2019). Castles, the gothic genre and travel writing: spatial considerations on Washington Irving’s The Alhambra. Diablotexto Digital, 5, 26–41. https://doi.org/10.7203/diablotexto.5.13853
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Issue

Vol. 5 (2019): CASTLES IN FICTION: SPACE, LEGEND AND METAPHOR

Section

Critical Studies

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