Anne Radcliffe

The Italian

Anne Radcliffe

• A bestselling author• Combined three successful trends

– The fantastic– Travel literature– Landscape painting through words

• Had never seen Italy. Based her representation on landscape painting and travel literature

• Widely influential– Byron in his representation of Venice. Ruskin. James.– Many poets borrowed poetic phrases and techinques

fron her– Most Romantic travellers saw Italy through the lens of

her descriptions

The Italian: A Gothic Romance

• Gothic– Sublime circumstances

Terror and suspense (but, on the whole, only isolated episodes)

– Persecution of innocent victims (E. and V.).

– Mock-medieval setting, ruins– Imprisonment,

claustrophobic situations– Seemingly Supernatural

events– Villains, Mysterious, satanic

characters

• Romance– Improbable situations– Flat characters (types)

• The victimized innocent girl

• The villain– Poetic prose– Emotion, fantasy– Disguises, Mistaken

identities, Recognitions (anagnoresis), Coincidences

– Mysteries, suspense

Typical Plot• Coleridge’s parody: “A Baron or Baroness

ignorant of their Birth, and in some dependent situation –a Castle or a Rock – a Sepulchre – at some distance from the Rock – Deserted Rooms –Underground Passages– Pictures – a Ghost, so believed – or a written record – blood on it! – A wonderful Cut-throat” (Letter to Wordsworth)

• Leslie Fiedler; “Girl escapes and is caught, escapes and is caught […] like a nightmare from which it is impossible to wake” (Love and Death in American Literature)

• Model: Angelica in Orlando Furioso

Importance of Landscape• Stands in awe of nature, perceived as powerful

and mysterious• Landscape is the protagonist of the romance

– Human figures, as suggested by Gilpin or in Salvator Rosa’s paintings, complete the scenery but do not dominate it.

– Most human figures static. Do not develop– Plots too intricate to remain impressed

• Her landscapes correspond to the taste of the day– Models; Rosa, Claude, Poussin, Richard Wilson– Aesthetic canons of the Sublime, the Picturesque and

the Beautiful

Travel Narrative• 2/3 of the text, on the road, away from home• Abduction, flights, pursuits• Substitutes the dynamics of travel / escape to the dynamics

of courtship of the realistic tradition.• “A device to send maidens on distant and exciting journeys

without offending the proprieties” (Moers, 126). A feminine substitute for the picaresque.– masculine picaresque vs feminine picturesque)

• Gilpin’s “picturesque travel” in pursuit of an object” becomes in Radcliffe pursuit of a sexual object.. A metaphor.

• A picturesque and pictorial travel: “Characters make their way from canvas to canvas”. Cinematic technique.

Word painting• Most important feature: Ut pictura poesis.

Imitation of painting with words. Landscape is the principal character of the novel

• Imitates landscape painters (vedutismo): Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Salvator Rosa– Called “the Salvator Rosa of British novelists”

• Creates a marvellous Italy (without having seen it) from paintings, theatre backdrops and travel books --the Italy the Romantic poets and future writers will describe – Direct line: Radcliffe—Byron—Ruskin—James.

• Puts Gilpin’s theories into practice.

Ambivalence about Italy• Admiration for the arts, antiquity, music

dominating all .

• Admiration for its nature mixing picturesque and sublime aspects.

• Imitation of its painters in descriptive writing.

• Revulsion for its religion and upper classes.

• Belief it is a country of crimes, horror and cruelty.

Italy as Land of the Sublime and the Picturesque

• Sublime settings – ruins,

– Mountains

– The Vesuvius

• Sublime circumstances (manifestations of the alien nature of Italy)– Picturesque common people, scenery, and

circumstances

– Music

Italian Clichés in Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian

• Love story • Music• Italy as source of horrifying otherness

– The Italy of Early modern theatre. – Fearful but sublime circumstances (manifestations of the alien

nature of Italy)

• Italy as land of the physical Sublime The Italy of Eighteenth cent. Painting – Sublime settings (ruins, mountains)

• Italy and the picturesque:– Picturesque common people, scenery, and circumstances Srcadic

stmospheres.

Italy as source of horrifying otherness

• Machiavellian characters– Schedoni– Spalatro– The marchesa

• Forces of oppression and containment– convent discipline, – Inquisition, – patriarchal families

• Intrigues, poison

Italy as mirror of England• Reflection of concern for class prejudice.• Democracy, love for freedom (England,Ellena,

Vincentio Vivaldi) vs authoritarianism (Vivaldi family, Abbess).

• Ellena like a Protestant martyr, refuses to pronounce the vows brving unimaginable horrors that will be imposed on her.

• Convents allude to seclusion of women in society.• Rise of new role for women.

– Ellena’s dignity as a working girl(82). Her resourcefulness and pride of independence(99)j.Conscious of her rights (p. 81)

Italian Clichés in Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian

• Love story • Music• Italy as source of horrifying otherness

– The Italy of Early modern theatre. – Fearful but sublime circumstances (manifestations of the alien

nature of Italy)

• Italy as land of the physical Sublime The Italy of Eighteenth cent. Painting – Sublime settings (ruins, mountains)

• Italy and the picturesque:– Picturesque common people, scenery, and circumstances Srcadic

stmospheres.