| Abstract: |
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's narrative poem Christabel (1797-1800) interrogates Enlightenment binariessuch as good and evil, reason and emotion, through a Gothic lens that emphasises psychologicalambiguity, repressed desires, and moral uncertainty. Therefore, this dissertation explores how thepoem's central relationship between Christabel and the enigmatic Geraldine destabilises fixed notionsof identity and agency. Adopting a transdisciplinary approach that integrates feminist theory, Freudianand Jungian psychoanalysis, and romantic literary criticism, the study examines Geraldine as both aGothic intruder and a projection of Christabel's unconscious anxieties. This paper analyses key scenes,most notably the bedroom episode, which functions as a symbolic ritual of transformation, blurring theboundaries between seduction and violation, self and Other. Hence, Christabel's subsequent silence andfragmentation are read as manifestations of transformation, enchantment, and ethical disorientation,rather than passive victimhood. Christabel is not a tale of moral resolution but of epistemological rupture. Its open structure, emotionalambivalence, and refusal to clarify Geraldine's nature point to a Romantic critique of Enlightenmentdualities. Instead of moral clarity, the poem offers a space in which identity is fluid, desire isunspeakable, and language fails to contain the depth of experience. By situating Christabel alongsideworks such as Keats' Lamia and La Belle Dame sans Merci, this research highlights a broader GothicRomantic discourse that subverts patriarchal narratives and anticipates modern explorations ofsubjectivity, repression, and the unconscious. |
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