Haunting or Hallucination? : Ch. P. Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' in the Context of the Contemporary Theory of Decorative Art and Psychiatry
Abstract
The paper focuses on the topic of the intricate pattern in the gothic horror genre. The core is CH.
P. Gilman's story The Yellow Wallpaper (1892).
Even though Gilman's book has received a considerable amount of scholarly attention, there have been only a few attempts at the visual analysis of the infamous wallpaper. Yet, the visual approach could lead to new findings regarding the Gilman's book and the connection of the intricate pattern with the gothic genre in general.
The motif of the intricate pattern can be found not only in the traditional gothic texts (e. g. Poe's short stories) but also in works outside this genre.
However, the peculiar persistence of this motif in the gothic genre manifests itself best in certain film adaptations of gothic novels which employ the intricate pattern even though it is missing in their literary sources (e. g. Wise's The Haunting).
The article analyzes the gothic intricate pattern in the context of the nineteenth-century theory of decorative art with a focus on Gilman's novel. Since the intricate pattern is mostly used in the kind of narrative where the haunting merges with hallucinations, the article also draws parallels between Gilman's description of madness (induced by complicated ornament) and contemporary diagnostic practices in psychiatry.
The aim is to create a broader perspective that could explain the presence of the intricate pattern in other gothic works across various media and illuminate its role.