The Supernatural and the Monstrous-Feminine in Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black
The Supernatural and the Monstrous-Feminine in Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black

Author(s): Olga Glebova
Subject(s): Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: horror fiction; Neo-Victorian Gothic; the supernatural; ghost story; haunting; the monstrous-feminine; trauma;
Summary/Abstract: Susan Hill’s novel The Woman in Black (1983) is an example of neo-Victorian Gothic, a popular genre which reflects the contemporary fascination with the irrational and the monstrous. In The Woman in Black the supernatural horror is represented by the female monster, or the monstrous-feminine, which takes the form of a revengeful spectral woman. Hill’s novel reveals the gaps and silences in the stories of Victorian women and uses the monstrous-feminine as a powerful metaphor to portray the situation of “unwed mothers,” stigmatized and ostracized in Victorian times. Moreover, the figure of the female monster offers a possibility to explore the psychological implications of a mother’s traumatic separation from her child and to highlight the contemporary relevance of the concerns expressed in Hill’s novel.

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