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The cumulative fabula model in A. Radcliffe’s “The Haunted Chamber”

M.A. Burtseva
80,00 ₽

UDC 821.111-3

https://doi.org/10.20339/PhS.1-22.089   

 

Burtseva Marina A.,

Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of the

Oriental Languages and Area Studies Department of

Institute of Foreign Philology and Regional Studies

Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University

e-mail: Donnarosa36912@mail.ru

 

The article examines the fabula of the Ann Radcliffe’s story “The Haunted Chamber” using the cumulative model of plot composition. The following elements are consistently distinguished: the exposition: the hero preparing for an overnight stay in the uninhabited wing of the Castle of Udolpho; the cumulation of events, including the storyline of Count Morano with two implicit (the discovery of a funeral pall and a dispute on the nature of supernatural) and one explicit (mysterious music in the castle corridors) contacts with inexplicable phenomena, as well as the Ludovico’s storyline with a series of mystical events: from a strange noise in the haunted chamber to a ghostly face appearing behind an armchair. The final catastrophe is made by the disappearance of Ludovico from the locked room and failed attempts to find him. An “old Provencal folktale” takes a special place in the narration; it also follows the cumulative fabula scheme, but ends with a favorable outcome. The analytical study of the Ann Radcliffe's story “The Haunted Chamber” using the universal cumulative model of plot composition allows, on the one hand, to consider it in the context of the genre tradition, namely, the aesthetics of the School of Terror and on the other — to reveal its artistic originality in full.

Keywords: A. Radcliffe, Gothic story, fabula, cumulative scheme, exposition, cumulation, catastrophe.

 

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