Death Becomes Us: The Consumptive Body in Nineteenth-Century Gothic Literature

<p>This thesis examines the impacts of nineteenth-century tuberculosis epidemics on gothic literature published between 1842 and 1872. In this period of time, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the United States and in Europe, killing an estimated one in seven people. Using theoretical lenses of psychoanalysis and material ecocriticism, this project considers borders between material bodies—specifically those between bacterial agents and humans—to be illusory and socially constructed. The first chapter focuses on the ways in which representations of tuberculosis, and its associated entanglement with the environment, appear in the work of two authors from the United States: Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The second chapter considers Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella <em>Carmilla</em>, paying close attention to moments of symptom description, physical description, moments of transmission, and character’s relationships to their environment, in order to break down the cultural influence of tuberculosis that the vampiric tale may demonstrate. Through exploring literary moments imbued with consumptive qualities this thesis analyzes the aestheticization of tuberculosis that has been internalized in cultural subconsciouses, and what such contents may reveal about historical processes of disease aestheticization. At present, tuberculosis is still the deadliest infectious disease in the world, and it is of vital importance to consider its relationship to humans. Through the analysis of literature, this thesis’s goal is to provide an avenue into thinking about the astoundingly far reach of the global health catastrophe of tuberculosis.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• McMahon, Jennifer Marie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Caroline Krzakowski

• material ecocriticism
• psychoanalysis
• eco-gothic
• nineteenth-century literature
• gothic literature
• epidemiology
• tuberculosis
• consumption
• vampire fiction
• medical humanities
• Aesthetics
• Arts and Humanities
• Comparative Literature
• Diseases
• History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
• Literature in English, British Isles
• Literature in English, North America
• Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/886

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.nmu.edu:theses-1943