How the (Un)Dead Became Modern: Supernatural Parodies of Modernity

  1. García García, Patricia 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Alcalá
    info
    Universidad de Alcalá

    Alcalá de Henares, España

    ROR https://ror.org/04pmn0e78

    Geographic location of the organization Universidad de Alcalá
Journal:
Margins Marges Margini: Rivista Multilingue di Studi Letterati, Linguistici e Culturali

ISSN: 2974-9549

Year of publication: 2023

Volume: 1

Issue: 1

Pages: 6-22

Type: Article

GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Margins Marges Margini: Rivista Multilingue di Studi Letterati, Linguistici e Culturali

Abstract

This article focuses on nineteenth-century supernatural short fiction and its intersectionswith the urban in the European modern context. Through readings of texts by JohnHollingshead, Charles Dickens and Flor O’Squarr, among others, this research addresses aform of the urban fantastic that employs satire and parody to reflect on the modern cityproject. In my analysis I compare different characters belonging to the ghost story traditionbut whose traits relate to the discourses on progress and on being “a modern citizen”. As Iaim to show, character construction, and how character relates to the urban context,underscores the question of what it is to be a modern ghost and, implicitly, what makes asuccessful (or failed) “modern” supernatural story.