When to Crack the Door: Horace Walpole and the Gothic Architecture of Information.
This article argues that Horace Walpole's gothic tropes dramatize the consequences of sharing or blocking information at a time when its availability was expanding. The Castle of Otranto implies that better information sharing might have prevented the novel's greatest tragedy, the heroine Matilda's...
| Publicado en: | Eighteenth Century Fiction Vol. 37; no. 3; pp. 485 - 512 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Toronto Press
Jul2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=189656844&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 189656844 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 08406286 7SD jtl: Eighteenth Century Fiction issn: 08406286 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2025 vid: 37 iid: 3 pid: 678 pub: University of Toronto Press artinfo: ui: 189656844 10.3138/ecf-2024-0059 ppf: 485 ppct: 27 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 415KB tig: atl: When to Crack the Door: Horace Walpole and the Gothic Architecture of Information. aug: au: Frey, Anne su: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797 Gothic architecture Information sharing Social structure Aristocracy (Social class) sug: subj: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797 Gothic architecture Information sharing Social structure Aristocracy (Social class) ab: This article argues that Horace Walpole's gothic tropes dramatize the consequences of sharing or blocking information at a time when its availability was expanding. The Castle of Otranto implies that better information sharing might have prevented the novel's greatest tragedy, the heroine Matilda's death. Three prophecies foresee different fates for Matilda; although one—the riddle on the sword—counsels that "Aflonso's blood" could save her. The characters fail to solve the riddle because they do not share their information about how the past influences the present. However, if failing to share information carries tragic consequences, open communication might further empower dangerous social and political actors. In his work for Parliament, Walpole turns the gothic qualities of information into an agonistic tool. With his queer male friends, however, Walpole finds an alternative vision of information sharing, forming a "committee of taste" to design Strawberry Hill with social structures that better enable information sharing, albeit within an aristocratic coterie. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Eighteenth Century Fiction is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Eighteenth Century Fiction holder: University of Toronto Press dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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