Sipari gotici. Lo strano caso del Dr. Boaden e Mr. Lewis

Abstract

Starting from the remarkable intellectual bond linking James Boaden and Matthew Gregory Lewis, this paper investigates the nature of the relationship that, at the end of the eighteenth century, came to be established between the theatrical adaptations of the most popular Gothic novels and Gothic “original” plays. The fact that most authors adapting Gothic novels for the theatre make a show of constructing a “gothicising” kind of drama, conveying a certain cultural and social respectability, is interpreted here as a deliberate attempt at defusing a genre, both narrative and theatrical, that was perceived as subversive and anti-nationalistic. In this effort towards normalization, one can see the reflections of a question of identity that runs through the society of the time and that goes beyond the field of literature, even while involving it.