Krystal Narusaki
LIS 601
A Bibliography Research Plan
Feminist Literary Criticism of Gothic Fiction
Catherine reading The Mysteries of Odolpho. Artist unknown.
Image courtesy: A Gothic Quest.
Krystal Narusaki
LIS 601 Introduction to Reference and Information Science
Professor Vanessa Irvin
May 11, 2016
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LIS 601
Table of Contents
Table of Contents, 2
Introduction, 3
Topic and Scope, 3
Audience and Library Collection, 3
Citation Style, 3
Explanation of the Coding, 3
Reference Sources, 4
Search Strategy, 4
Subject Headings, 4
Call Numbers, 4
Search Terms, 5
Search Process, 5
OPACS, 5
Voyager, 5
WorldCat, 6
Databases, 6
JSTOR, 6
Academic Search Complete, 6
Project Muse, 6
ProQuest, 7
America: History and Life, 7
Studies on Women and Gender, 7
Literary Criticism, 8
Poetry and Short Story Reference Center, 8
Web Resources, 8
Google Scholar, 8
Google Books, 8
Conclusion, 9
References, 10
Appendix I: Annotated Bibliography, 13
Topic: Feminist Critique of Gothic Fiction, 13
Sub-Topic 1: Gothic fiction and the resistance of patriarchal oppression, 14
Sub-Topic 2: Gothic fiction and the representation of women, 14
Appendix II: Search Term Relevancy, 15
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Introduction
Topic and Scope
Gothic fiction is a genre of literature that blends fiction with horror, death, and sometimes
romance creating a prevailing atmosphere of mystery and terror (Encyclopedia Britanica, 2016).
Haunting tales of intrigue and passion pull the reader into a story often set in medieval ruins or
buildings set in castles with secret passageways, trapdoors, and hidden compartments
(Encyclopedia Britanica, 2016).
When taking a feminist criticism of literature, the reader can be concerned with the ways in
which literature either reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, or psychological
oppression of women (Purdue Online Writing Lab, 2016). This theory views the Female Gothic,
guided by authors such as Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley, as an opportunity to attribute a
feminist angle on gothic fiction as a “result of the suppression of female sexuality… as a
challenge to the gender hierarchy and values of a male-dominated society” (Abrams, 1957).
Within this criticism there is a movement to read gothic fiction to find motifs such as figure
which fight patriarchal norms or where the female is defined by the difference with male figures
in the book (Purdue Online Writing Lab, 2016). With the emergence of gothic romance, there
was an increase in both female writers and readers of the gothic genre and this became an avenue
via literature for women to escape their “normal” roles in society (Buckingham, 2014). The two
subtopics chosen for this bibliography plan are gothic fiction and the resistance of patriarchal
oppression and the representation of women in gothic fiction.
I was first exposed to the concept of a feminist criticism of gothic fiction in a Women’s Studies
course during my undergraduate studies. The class examined the female representation in
literature and how it can mean more than just being an example of females in society but as a
way to escape the roles of women as forced upon them by society. I began to see my favorite
genre in a new light and appreciate the subtler meanings found between the lines.
Audience and Library Collection
This research plan is intended to benefit undergraduate students as well as Master’s level
students at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa in the departments of Women’s Studies,
American Studies, Literature and related fields which touch upon feminist theory and/or gender
studies. The bibliography plan will utilize the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa library and its
physical/digital copies, digital subscriptions, and interlibrary loan agreements.
Citation Style
The citation style used follows the Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th
Edition (2010).
Explanation of the Coding
All controlled vocabulary/subject headings will be written in CAPS as well as Boolean Operators
such as AND, OR, and NOT. Keywords will be italicized and natural language strings will be
placed within “quotation marks”.
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Reference Sources
Sources consulted for this bibliography plan were OPACs of Voyager and WorldCat. General
humanities databases were JSTOR, Academic Search Complete, Project Muse, ProQuest,
America: History and Life. Databases with more specific coverage to the topic were Studies on
Women and Gender Abstracts, Literary Criticism, Poetry & Short Story Reference Center. Web
resources were Google Scholar and Google Books.
Search Strategy
Subject Headings
To locate Library of Congress subject headings related to this bibliography plan, I browsed
through the most recent edition of the Library of Congress Volumes which can be found at
http:www.loc.gov/aba/publications/FreeLCSH/freelcsh.html#About. I began by looking up
Gothic Fiction and selected headings related to the literary genre. I then searched through the
Fiction section as well as the Feminist section. I created an alternate subject headings area that
would be related to the main searches tangentially.
Subject Headings
GOTHIC FICTION
FICTION
FEMINISM
FEMINISM AND LITERATURE
LITERATURE-18TH CENTURY
Alternate Subject Headings:
FEMINIST THEORY
FEMINIST FRIENDSHIP IN LITERATURE
FEMINIST FICTION
Call Numbers
The following Library of Congress call numbers were found using the Library of Congress
Subject Headings which can be found online at
www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/classification/lcco/lcco_h.pdf.
Women, Feminism
Social Structure
Fiction
Literary Criticism
HW 1101-2030.7
HM 706
PN 6120-15-6120.95
PN 80-99
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Search Terms
Below are keywords related to the topic of this bibliography plan and can be used when
searching databases. The truncated items appear with an asterisk (*) at the end of a word which
indicates they can be used to find variant endings to the word.
Keywords
Feminis* (Feminist, Feminism)
Gothic
Novel
Fiction
Female
Gender
Standards
Mystic
Lesbian* (Lesbian, Lesbianism)
Literary criticism
Patriarchy
Other
Oppression
Hysteria
Power
Norms
Society
Friendship
Wom*n (Women, Woman)
Virginity
Boolean Expressions
“Gothic novel” AND Feminism
“Gothic fiction” AND “female roles”
“Gothic fiction” AND patriarchy OR gender
“Gothic Fiction” N5 gender
Feminis* AND “gothic fiction”
Natural Language
“feminist elements in gothic novels”
“female representations in gothic novels”
“the gothic novel and patriarchy oppression of woman”
Search Process
OPACS
UH Voyager
Voyager searches through the catalogs of the University of Hawai`i system and I chose to use
this database as this bibliography plan was created for undergraduate and Master’s level students
at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa. I first tried using searches which utilized subject headings
versus keywords to see what the results would be. A search of GOTHIC FICTION AND
FEMINISM yielded 121 highly relevant results. Comparing this to a search which utilized
subject headings and keywords, GOTHIC FICTION AND “female role” culled less results
which were only useful. I then turned to natural language strings to see what type of results
would be presented. A search of “gender roles in gothic fiction” resulted in 74 not relevant
results. It appeared to me that Voyager was more accurate with searches utilizing Boolean
Expressions
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WorldCat
WorldCat is a global listing of library collections and I was excited to see what my searches
would yield and how they would compare to Voyager. I had initially expected lots of very
relevant materials since the source I would be pulling from would be, I assumed, larger than
Voyager. My first search used truncation, GOTHIC FICTION AND feminis* which yielded not
relevant results. My next search swapped “feminis*” for “feminist” and this yielded less results
which were more relevant to the topic. Curiously, I entered GOTHIC FICTION as my next
search to see how many items I was searching through. I received the most success when using
natural language strings such as “gender norms in gothic fiction” and “literary criticism of gothic
fiction feminist”. I was surprised to see my lack of quality in my searches using Boolean
operators and it made me think of WorldCat was designed for the non-librarian or people who is
more comfortable with Google-type searching.
Databases
JSTOR
JSTOR is a database that offers full text articles and I chose this database because some of the
disciplines covered include anthropology, philosophy, and cultural studies. I thought some of
these branches of study might encompass my topic. I was unable to find a controlled vocabulary
for this database. My first search of GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINISM yielded an alarmingly
small 2 results. I chose to flip and slightly change the word order and see if that made a
difference. FEMINIST AND GOTHIC FICTION yielded more results but I valued those results
as only useful. Of my searches, the natural language string of “gender studies and gothic fiction”
yielded some of my most relevant results. JSTOR was able to pull sometimes large amounts of
results by the relevancy was not quite as accurate as I would have liked.
Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete boasts over 8,500 full-text periodicals, over 7,000 of which are peerreviewed journals. The disciplines covered include social sciences, humanities,
language/linguistics, etc. Although the database offers a user-friendly drop down option to ease
Boolean searches, I opted to use the basic search and create my own Boolean searches. I first
browsed the database’s thesaurus for items related to “gothic fiction” and found results ranging
from broad (horror tales) to narrow (penny dreadful). There was also related items within the
thesaurus which was useful to me (gothic language, gothic revival). My first two Boolean
searches of GOTHIC FICTION AND feminis* and GOTHIC FICTION AND gender roles AND
patriarchy results in some of my most beneficial results. I surprised to have little success with
natural language strings such as “female roles in gothic fiction” which in previous databases had
been moderately to highly successful.
Project Muse
Project Muse offers full-text, scholarly journals in the arts and humanities field. It also boasts a
very user-friendly interface. I could not find a controlled vocabulary but was able to browse by
subjects. I chose to browse through Women’s Studies, Gender, and Sexuality but the items listed
were not relevant to my topic. To begin my searches, I tried my go-to of GOTHIC FICTION
AND feminis* which surprisingly had no results. I then turned to another favorite search option
of GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINISM which had a good amount of results but they were not
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relevant to my topic. I had been really excited to search through Project Muse but was getting a
little discouraged and confused with my results. The natural language of “examples of
patriarchy in gothic fiction” produces so-so results but of my most beneficial results was from a
search similar to my natural language string. FEMINIST FICTION AND GOTHIC OR
patriarchy yielded some of my most accurate results. I was surprised because Project Muse
boasts a very user-friendly platform so I am assuming that it’s not the searching capabilities of
the database but rather the information which they offer that resulted in my lack luster results.
ProQuest
The ProQuest databases pulls results from the 30+ databases that are hosted by ProQuset. With a
very easy to navigate interface, I was excited to see the results of my searches. I consulted their
thesaurus but did not find items related to gothic fiction or feminist literary criticism so I began
searching using my own keywords. My first search of GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINISM
resulted in over 10,000 results which seemed mostly useful but considering the amount of result I
chose to refine my results by choosing sort by subject in the limiters on the right side of the
screen. Choosing items with the subject of Women’s Studies brought my search down to 2,187
highly relevant items. I did a second Boolean search using “female roles” AND GOTHIC
FICTION which yielded 190 highly relevant results. I was surprised that the natural language
string such as “examples of patriarchy in gothic fiction” resulted in a lot of results that were
merely useful. While some databases function better with natural language, it seems to me that
ProQuest is better with Boolean/Advanced searches.
America: History and Life
The America: History and Life database offers literature about the US and Canada and I chose to
utilize this database because most of the information I was finding on other databases was
written by scholars in the US and Canada (not so much in Asia). I searched through the index to
find words related to ‘gothic’ and found related terms such as gothic fiction, gothic romance,
gothic literature. My first few Boolean searches such as GOTHIC FICTION AND feminis* and
FEMINISM AND GOTHIC FICTION yielded moderately useful results. Two searches which
yielded the most relevant results was a Boolean search of (GOTHIC FICTION) AND gender
AND patriarchy and a natural language string of “feminist literary criticism of gothic fiction”. It
seemed like my beneficial Boolean search used parenthesis and Boolean Operators to narrow the
search for the database while the successful natural language string narrowed the search by
including the words ‘feminist literary criticism’.
Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts
Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts was one database that I expected to find highly
relevant results as they deal not only with the education, employment, health related to women
but also literary criticism. I began by browsing similar topics and I chose the Language and
Literature option. Within Language and Literature, I chose Gothic Literature which presented me
with a small amount of material on the subject. My first search of GOTHIC FICTION AND
FEMINISM resulted in highly relevant and thought provoking material as well as “feminist
criticism” AND GOTHIC FICTION. My natural language strings of “examples of patriarchy in
gothic fiction” and “gothic fiction and the fear of the other” resulted in my least beneficial
results. This was one of the first searches in which I searched for lesbian AND friendship in
relation to gothic fiction and received highly relevant results.
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Literary Criticism
I found Literary Criticism to be one of the most beneficial databases in my search along with
Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts. Literary Criticism offers the largest curated online
collection of literary criticisms across eras in history and across genres. I could not find a
controlled vocabulary but did enjoy searching term frequency. This feature allows you see the
popularity/frequency of a term. I searched for both GOTHIC FICTION and FEMINIST which
gained popularity in the 1960-70’s. My first two searches were Boolean searches of GOTHIC
FICTION AND FEMINISM and FEMINSIT FICTION AND GOTHIC. Both of these searches
used subject headings and resulted in very relevant results. My Boolean searches using keywords
were less beneficial. When using keyword searches, I found natural language to be more
beneficial with searches such as “the role of patriarchy in gothic fiction”.
Poetry and Short Story Reference Center
Poetry and Short Story Reference Center database offers full-text resources of both classic and
contemporary poetry. There are also short stories and biographies offered at this database. I was
unable to find a controlled vocabulary so I used my own keywords to search this database. My
first search of “GOTHIC FICTION” AND FEMINIST, both subject headings, resulted in
relevant search results. I attempted to use the “GOTHIC FICTION” N5 “gender roles” search
but receive no results. My natural language strings of “representations of females in gothic
fiction” and “lesbian representations in gothic fiction” received less than satisfactory results.
Web Resources
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is within the Google family of searching which allows of easy and intuitive
searches of free, full-text items. To find their advanced search, you must click the arrow on the
side of the search field which generates a fillable search. My first search of GOTHIC FICTION
AND FEMINIST resulted in a whopping 37,400 highly relevant searches. After listening to
Professor Jacso discuss Google Scholar, I decided to click through the pages of information. If
there truly is over 37K results, I should be clicking for a while but there was a server arrow
around 300 results making me question their result total. I received just as wonderful results with
the search of “GOTHIC FICTION” N5 “gender roles” so I decided to try my luck with natural
language strings. My search of “female oppression in gothic fiction” as well as “lesbian
representations in gothic fiction” yielded stellar results. So I decided to take some of my worst
searches and try them on Google Scholar. All three of my “difficult” searches” were still
moderately difficult on Google Scholar.
Google Books
Google Books is also within the family of Google and offers full text books. The overall search
of Google Books was less beneficial than Google Scholar but there were some beneficial
elements to Google Books in addition to being full-text such as allowing snippets of the book.
My search of GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINIST yielded nearly 30K results of high
relevancy. My search using GOTHIC FICTION N5 patriarchy yielded little results which were
only useful in relevancy. I was surprised that my natural language strings such as “female
oppression in gothic fiction” yielded less useful searches. I went into this assuming that since this
was a Google product, the natural language would be more beneficial.
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Conclusion
I really learned a lot by doing this bibliography research plan. One of the biggest things that I am
taking away is the lesson to treat each database differently and to not become frustrated with one
database just because you’ve not figured out the tricks to searching on it. Rather than make
assumptions when you encounter a new database it is important to think critically about the
database—who are its intended users, what type of searching (Boolean, natural language, etc.)
might they prefer, etc.
I also was surprised to see the overlap between disciplines. When I first searched through the
databases offered via UH Manoa Library I expected to receive some of the best results with
databases such as Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts but found amazing resources on
other databases. I saw that it is important to not hone in on an intended goal but allow the
research to guide you and grow/shrink as you embark on the journey of seeking information.
Leaving my comfort zone was something that I need to work on. I feel that creating new and
unique combinations of subject headings and keywords might broaden my results and might
create a more beneficial outcome in resources collected. In the beginning of the search process I
would stay in my comfort zone of GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINIST but towards the end I
enjoyed playing with different searches. I feel that this will not only generate an interest search
result but might find resources in areas you had never imagined to look.
With my results, I was surprised to see some of the best sources come from Google Scholar. I
had heard in classes that its almost looked down upon to use Google Scholar over databases but
seeing the results Google Scholar produced made me take a second look. On one hand I
personally use Google frequently for its immediacy and (seeming) efficiency (Carr, 2008) but
cautiously know the information might not be the best in quality.
Professor Jacso’s presentations on Google Scholar made me hesitant to use Google Scholar
because his findings of their primitive parsing, handling of Boolean searches, and inflated counts
which I found during my research as well (Jacso, Metadata mega mess in Google Scholar 34(1),
2010) as well as the alarming occurrence of “ghost authors” (Jacso, Google Scholar Ghost
Authors, 2009). I know that I cannot trust their metadata, their number of results they say they’ve
found, etc. but the relevant information in the results made me uncomfortable.
In the end, I am able to see Google Scholar as a great jumping-off point to research and hope to
see them clear up all the searching errors because having a free, full-text option will be great to
the future of information.
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References
Abrams, M. (1957). A glossary of literary terms. New York: Rinehart.
Academic Search Complete. (2016). Retrieved from Academic Search Complete:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/ehost/search/advanced?sid=8737d
acf-7fb2-4d99-ae98-39e7b6da04d1%40sessionmgr4001&vid=0&hid=4207
America: History and Life. (2016). Retrieved from America: History and Life:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/ehost/search/advanced?sid=53de5
441-1cc5-49c5-b0b0-052136823b5f%40sessionmgr4005&vid=0&hid=4207
Buckingham, K. (2014, January 27). The role of women in gothic fiction. Retrieved from A Story of a
Pheonix: https://storyofaphoenix.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/the-role-of-women-withingothic-literature/
Carr, N. (2008). Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic, 56-63.
Davison, C. (2010). Gothic Architectonics: the poetics and polititcs of gothic space. Papers on Language
and Literature 46(2), 136-163.
DeLamotte, E. (1990). Perils of the Night: a feminist study of 19th century gothic fiction. NY: Oxford Press
University.
Dominguez-Rue, E. (2004). Madwomen in the drawing room: Female invalidism in Ellen Glasgow's
Gothic Stories. Journal of American Studies 38(3), 425-438.
Encyclopedia Britanica. (2016). Gothic Novel. Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britanica:
http://www.britannica.com/art/Gothic-novel
Fedorko, K. (1995). Gender and the gothic in the fiction of Edith Wharton. Tuscaloosa: University of
Alabama Press.
Freeman, N. (2008). E. Nesbit's new woman gothic. Women's Writing, 454-469.
Google Books. (2016). Retrieved from Google Books: https://books.google.com/
Google Scholar. (2016). Retrieved from Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/
Heiland, D. (2004). Gothic & gender: an introduction. MA: Blackwell.
Hoeveler, D. (1995). Gothic Feminism. PA: Penn State University Press.
Jacso, P. (2009). Google Scholar Ghost Authors. Library Journal , 26-27.
Jacso, P. (2010). Metadata mega mess in Google Scholar 34(1). Online Information Review, 175-191.
JSTOR. (2016). Retrieved from JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/
Library of Congress. (2016). Library of Congress Classification Online. Retrieved from Library of Congress:
www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/classification/lcco/lcco_h.pdf
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Library of Congress. (2016). Library of Congress Subject Headings PDF Files. Retrieved from Library of
Congress: http:www.loc.gov/aba/publications/FreeLCSH/freelcsh.html#About
Literature Criticism Online. (2016). Retrieved from Literature Criticism Online:
http://go.galegroup.com.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/ps/start.do?p=LCO&u=hono44147&aut
hCount=1
Poetry & Short Story Reference Center. (2016). Retrieved from Poetry and Short Story Reference center:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/prc/search/basic?sid=c27f181031e4-4699-8eb7-30cd830090b2%40sessionmgr4003&vid=0&hid=4207
Project Muse. (2016). Retrieved from Project Muse: http://muse.jhu.edu.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/
ProQuest. (2016). Retrieved from ProQuest:
http://search.proquest.com.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/index?accountid=27140
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (2016). Feminist Criticism, 1960-present. Retrieved from Purdue OWL:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/11/
Quest, A. G. (2013, April 6). The effects of reading Gothic novels in women's imagination... fabulous
engravings. Retrieved from A Gothic Quest:
https://agothicquest.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/the-effects-of-gothic-novels-in-womensimagination-fabulous-engravings/
Robbins, A. (2013). "Lizzie Do You Mind?": Gertrude Stein's laws of genre in Blodd on the Dining Room
Floor. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 25-39.
Smith, A. &. (2004). The female gothic: then and now. Gothic Studies 6(1), 1-7.
Smith, A. &. (2009). The female gothic role directions. NY: Palgrave McMillian.
Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts. (2016). Retrieved from Studies on Women and Gender
Abstracts:
http://www.tandfonline.com.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/db/cswa/#.Vy0_bIQrKM8
University of Hawai`i at Manoa Libary. (2016). Voyager. Retrieved from Unviersity of Hawai`i at Manoa:
http://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/
Wallace, D. (2013). Female gothic histories: gender, history, and the gothic. Cardiss: University of Wales
Press.
Winter, K. (1992). Subjects of slavery, agents of change: women and power in gothic novels and slave
narratives, 1790-1865. Athens : Georgia.
WorldCat. (2016). WorldCat. Retrieved from OCLC World Cat: https://www.worldcat.org/
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Appendix I: Annotated Bibliography
Topic: Feminist literary criticism of gothic fiction
Davison, C. (2010), Gothic Architectonics: The poetics and politics of gothic space. Papers on
Language and Literature, 46(2), pp. 136-163.
This article covers the once dismissive past of gothic literature in regards to literary criticism and
how it has blossomed into a popular genre for the field within literary criticism. The author
covers some issues that were products of a rigid and codified society and how they were
represented in some gothic fictions (example: rape terrors). This article is valuable because it
gives the history of the literary criticism of gothic fiction in both a general sense and also in
regards to a feminist literary critique.
DeLamotte, E. (1990). Perils of the Night: a feminist study of 19th century gothic fiction. NY:
Oxford University Press.
DeLamotte posits that the source of gothic terror is the individual’s anxiety of creating
boundaries between the self and society. This book covers the psychological and religious
context in which gothic fiction arose in relation to women and discusses the how private demons
and social realities have created much of the discomfort that has created gothic fiction. Authors
such as Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Mary Shelley are discussed—some of the lost women
gothic authors.
Heiland, D. (2004). Gothic & gender: An introduction. MA: Blackwell.
Heiland covers gothic fiction between 1760-1840 and discussed the theoretical introduction
which is key to understanding gothic fiction from a feminist perspective. Authors covered
includes Ann Radcliffe, Clara Reeve, Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte. The final chapter touches
upon contemporary gothic fiction making it a wonderful source presenting a long history.
Hoeveler, D. (1995). Gothic feminism. PA: Penn State University Press.
While some argue that a sense of victim feminism is the root of the female gothic novel,
Hoeveler posits that gothic feminism does not begin from a sense of victimization but rather
actively attempts to reshape the world subversively via writings. The reader is guided through
the coded and veiled critique “of a public institution erected to displace, contain, and commodify
women.”
Smith, A. & Wallace, D. (2009). The female gothic role directions. NY: Palgrave McMillian.
Via a collection of essays, Smith & Wallace cover the female gothic and the institutionalization
of gothic studies as a genre. Topics covered include female gothic metaphors, incest in the
female gothic, and domestic female gothic.
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Smith, A. & Wallace, D. (2004). The female gothic: then and now. Gender Studies, 6(1), pp. 1-7.
This article presents thorough coverage on female gothic fiction and the emergence of a feminist
literary critique on the subject. Presented is also the current trend of studying the topic by
contextualizing it in history to understand the writings better.
Sub-Topic 1: Gothic fiction and the resistance of patriarchal oppression
Dominguez-Rue, E. (2004). Madwomen in the drawing room: Female invalidism in Ellen
Glasgow’s Gothic Stories. Journal of American Studies 38(3), pp. 425-438
Dominguez-Rue uses Glasgow’s book to examine religious, social, and medical beliefs in the
Victorian era which marginalized women into a state of chronic invalidism. Glasgow writes of
female characters which reject this role and refuse to allow their worth be made by men.
Freeman, N. (2008). E. Nesbit’s new woman gothic. Women’s Writing, pp. 454-469.
Freeman examines Nesbit’s book as both a successful gothic chiller and also as a “politicized
investigation of women under patriarchy”. Freeman compares the book with other texts of the
era and how authors of the time used gothic fiction to expose a violence against women.
Robbins, A. (2013). “Lizzie Do You Mind?” Gertrude Stein’s Laws of Genre in Blood on the
Dining Room Floor. Journal of Lesbian Studies, pp. 25-39.
Robbins examines gothic/domestic fiction and its role as being a way for authors to critique
patriarchal structure in society.
Sub-Topic 2: Gothic fiction and the representation of women
Fedorko, K. (1995). Gender and the Gothic in fiction of Edith Wharton. Tuscaloosa: University
of Alabama Press.
Fedorko examines the way Wharton used elements of gothic fiction in her stories to expose the
nature of female and male and the tension between the two.
Wallace, D. (2013). Female gothic histories: Gender, history, and the gothic. Cardiff: University
of Wales Press.
The author examines gothic fiction throughout history and the way it represented women to
symbolize their exclusion from the traditional narrative. Wallace examines different authors
throughout time to track the development of women in the gothic genre.
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Winter, K. (1992). Subjects of slavery, agents of change: women and power in gothic novels and
slave narratives, 1790-1865. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Winters posits that females in gothic literature have been portrayed as agents without power but
she presents counter representations—women in terrifying family situations that have the ability
to be agents for social change. Winters does not say females in gothic fiction and in slave
narratives are the same but that both oppressed groups have had voices for change.
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LIS 601
Appendix II: Search Terms Relevancy Chart
Key
BP: Boolean Phrase
NL: Natural Language
SU: Subject Heading
FT: Full Text
HR: Highly Relevant
U: Useful
NR: Not Relevant
UH Voyager
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINSIM
BP: FEMINIST THEORY AND GOTHIC
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND “female role”
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND gender AND norm
NL: “gender roles in gothic fiction”
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND patriarchy
BP: feminis* AND GOTHIC FICTION
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND hysteria
# of Items Retrieved
121
184
63
17
74
30
191
34
Relevancy
HR
HR
U
HR
NR
HR
HR
NR
WorldCat
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND feminis*
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINIST
BP: GOTHIC NOVEL
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND gender
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND female roles
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND “female roles”
NL: “gender norms in gothic fiction”
NL: “literary criticism of gothic fiction feminist”
# of Items Retrieved
600
430
7,334
754
176
6
34
207
Relevancy
NR
U
NR
NR
U
HR
HR
HR
JSTOR
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINNISM
BP: FEMINIST AND GOTHIC FICTION
BP: “GOTHIC FICTION” AND “FEMINISM”
NL: “feminist criticism of gothic fiction”
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND patriarchy
BP: “gender studies” AND GOTHIC FICTION
NL: “gender studies and gothic fiction”
BP: “feminist gothic”
# of Items Retrieved
2
137
14
1,081
336
7,309
150
187
Relevancy
NR
U
U
U
HR
U
HR
U
15
Krystal Narusaki
LIS 601
Academic Search Complete
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND feminis*
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND gender roles AND
patriarchy
BP: FEMINIST “GOTHIC FICTION”
BP: hysteria AND 18TH CENTURY FICTION
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND feminism OR patriarchy
NL: “female roles in gothic fiction”
NL: “feminist criticism of gothic fiction”
# of Items Retrieved
32
1
Relevancy
HR
HR
3
2
3,192
1,702
1,819
HR
NR
U
U
U
# of Items Retrieved
0
876
119
1,013
220
41
Relevancy
NA
NR
HR
U
U
HR
204
U
ProQuest
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINISM
BP: “female roles” AND GOTHIC FICTION
NL: “female roles in gothic fiction”
BP: women AND literary criticism
SU: GOTHIC FICTION
NL: “examples of patriarchy in gothic fiction”
# of Items Retrieved
10,616
190
24,384
757
34,227
7215
Relevancy
U
HR
NR
U
NR
U
America: History and Life
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND feminis*
BP: FEMINIST AND GOTHIC FICTION
NL: “feminist literary critic*”
BP: (FEMINIST FICTION) GOTHIC
BP: (female roles) AND GOTHIC FICTION
BP: (GOTHIC FICTION) AND gender AND patriarchy
NL: “feminist literary criticism of gothic fiction”
# of Items Retrieved
171
1
50
179
176
181
200
Relevancy
U
U
NR
U
U
HR
HR
Project Muse
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND feminis*
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINISM
BP: “GOTHIC FICTION” AND feminism
NL: “feminist criticism of gothic fiction”
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND feminism AND patriarchy
BP: FEMINIST FICTION AND GOTHIC OR
patriarchy
NL: “examples of patriarchy in gothic fiction”
16
Krystal Narusaki
LIS 601
Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINISM
BP: “feminist criticism” AND GOTHIC FICTION
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND patriarchy
NL: “examples of patriarchy in gothic fiction”
BP: lesbian AND friendship AND “GOTHIC FICTION”
NL: “gothic fiction and the fear of the other”
BP: norms AND “GOTHIC FICTION” AND gender
BP: “GOTHIC FICTION” N5 “gender roles”
# of Items Retrieved
92
154
1,072
1,005
34
2,818
67
5
Relevancy
HR
HR
NR
U
HR
NR
U
NR
Literary Criticism
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINISM
BP: FEMINIST FICTION AND GOTHIC
BP: patriarchy OR gender AND GOTHIC FICTION
SU: GOTHIC FICTION
BP: female virginity AND GOTHIC FICTION
NL: “the role of patriarchy in gothic fiction”
NL: “female hysteria in gothic fiction”
BP: female power AND mystics
# of Items Retrieved
71
39
1,376
276
2
205
1
21
Relevancy
HR
HR
U
NR
NR
HR
NR
U
Poetry and Short Story Reference Center
Search Terms
BP: “GOTHIC FICTION” AND FEMINIST
BP: “GOTHIC FICTION” N5 “gender roles”
BP: (GOTHIC FICTION) gender AND oppression
NL: “representations of females in gothic fiction”
NL: “lesbian representations in gothic fiction”
SU: GOTHIC FICTION
BP: “18TH CENTURY AND FEMINIS*
# of Items Retrieved
52
0
56
5
21
52
5
Relevancy
HR
NA
HR
U
NR
NR
U
Google Scholar
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINIST
BP: “GOTHIC FICTION” N5 “gender roles”
BP: (GOTHIC FICTION) gender AND oppression
NL: “female oppression in gothic fiction”
NL: “lesbian representations in gothic fiction”
BP: female virginity AND GOTHIC FICTION
BP: “18TH CENTURY AND FEMINIS*
NL: “fear of the other in gothic fiction”
# of Items Retrieved
37,400
1,070
21,600
28,000
9,800
25
295
81,800
Relevancy
HR
HR
HR
HR
HR
NR
NR
U
17
Krystal Narusaki
LIS 601
Google Books
Search Terms
BP: GOTHIC FICTION AND FEMINIST
BP: “GOTHIC FICTION” N5 “patriarchy”
BP: (GOTHIC FICTION) gender AND oppression
NL: “female oppression in gothic fiction”
NL: “female representations in gothic fiction”
BP: female virginity AND GOTHIC FICTION
BP: “18TH CENTURY AND FEMINIST
NL: “fear of the other in gothic fiction”
18
# of Items Retrieved
29,500
379
2,350
3,480
9,150
74
2,120
34,700
Relevancy
HR
U
HR
U
U
NR
U
U