Muł, czarownice i straszne łóżko. Gospoda dwóch wiedźm – znaleziony rękopis
A Mule, Some Witches, and a Terrible Bed. The Inn of the Two Witches – a Found Manuscript

Author(s): Justyna Jajszczok
Subject(s): Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Conrad; The Inn of the Two Witches; grotesque; detective story; locked-room mystery
Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to interpret Joseph Conrad’s story The Inn of the Two Witches as an example of the detective story of the locked-room mystery subgenre, in which the actual crime story is obscured by gothic clichés. The article analyses the use of the unreliable narrator, the introduction of the fantastic and grotesque characters and the atmosphere of horror as the means through which the reader’s attention is diverted away from the mystery itself and focused on the supernatural and the inexplicable instead. Thus, The Inn is read here not just as a story within a story, but mainly as a locked-room mystery hidden inside a gothic story.

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