(De)composing Gothicism 121 Studies in American Fiction 50.1–2 (2023): 121–142 © 2024 by Johns Hopkins University Press (De)composing Gothicism: Disturbing the (eco-) Gothic in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle Amy LeBlanc and Leah Van Dyk University of Calgary W hile Shirley Jackson’s novels often use gothic elements (including omens, large and stately houses, a supernatural presence, and horror), We Have Always Lived in the Castle differs from other texts in Jackson’s body of work: the last completed novel before her death in 1965, it is one of few works with a first-person protagonist, Merricat Blackwood, who subverts gothic tropes by being less victim than victimizer.1 From Merricat’s first appearance, we learn of her fondness for the death-cap mushroom,2 a highly toxic fungus that is responsible for the majority of fatal mushroom poisonings each year: she explains, “My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, . . . I like my sister Constance . . . and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.”3 From the very beginning, Merricat embodies the intersections of gothic and natural imagination, equating her sinister love of poisonous mushrooms to the maintenance of her quiet, sheltered life with Constance. In Castle, the ecogothic arises through spectral environments, eco-sickness, vengeful natures (both human and more-than-human), and uncanny bodies and spaces. Using ecocritical theorists such as Helen Houser and Sarah Jaquette Ray alongside gothic criticism of Jackson, we seek to explore the interconnections and importance of the ecogothic in Castle, examining how eco-sickness narratives “carry us from the micro-scale of the individual to the macro-scale of institutions, nations, and the planet” and paying close attention to the use of fungus in the novel as a metaphor for—and simultaneous agent against—these places, structures, and bodies.4 While the role of the gothic in Jackson’s work is frequently examined, it is Castle’s grounding in the environmental as gothic that makes it a unique study in Jackson’s oeuvre. Jackson’s environmental influences allow 122 Studies in American Fiction for new frameworks through which to read places, structures, and bodies as being gothic in and of themselves. The liminal space of Merricat and Constance’s isolated home and garden, and the transgressions and interconnections of this natural space in their lives, insist on an ecogothic reading of this short yet complex text. In using fungi as the focal point of our discussion, supported by considerations of plants and nature more generally, we seek to make explicit the importance of the environment to the Blackwood sisters’ usurpation of the gothic space and transgression of gothic literary expectations. As Helen Houser writes, we investigate and distinguish how “in ecosickness [or ecogothic] fiction, humans and the more-than-human world do not only interact but, more importantly, are coconstitutive.”5 The invasions of the natural world (particularly the fungal and plant worlds) in Castle cause not only disruption to the gothic genre but disintegration of the expectations of gothic protagonists, gender roles, and sickly spaces. In their article on fungal transformations in fin de siècle literature, Anthony Camara writes that fungus “joins the ranks of literary monstrosities” because it presents an “extreme morphological plasticity”6 that taps into our anxieties about the unknown, the unclassifiable, and the dangerous. In Jackson’s work in particular, fungus is an effective emblem of gothic literature—with its roots in the earth and its decay-filled growth—as, through Merricat’s affinity for Amanita phalloides, Castle (de)composes the expectations and anxieties of the gothic. Shirley Jackson and Castle’s Gothic Origins Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco in 1916 and spent most of her adult life in New York and then Vermont with her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman; their four children; and numerous cats.7 Jackson is best known for her works of horror, psychological tension, literary suspense, and domestic comedy, including such famed works as “The Lottery,” Hangsaman, and The Haunting of Hill House.8 Between Jackson’s own work, numerous biographies (including Ruth Franklin’s A Rather Haunted Life), and the publication of...

（去）创作哥特主义 121 美国小说研究 50.1–2 (2023)：121–142 © 2024，约翰霍普金斯大学出版社 （去）创作哥特主义：扰乱雪莉·杰克逊的《我们一直住在城堡里》中的（生态）哥特式艾米·勒布朗 (Amy LeBlanc) 和利亚·范·戴克 (Leah Van Dyk) 卡尔加里大学 虽然雪莉·杰克逊的小说经常使用哥特式元素（包括预兆、大而庄严的房屋、超自然的存在和恐怖），但《我们一直住在城堡里》与杰克逊小说中的其他文本不同。作品：梅里卡特·布莱克伍德于 1965 年去世前完成的最后一部小说，是为数不多的以第一人称主角梅里卡特·布莱克伍德 (Merricat Blackwood) 为主角的作品之一，梅里卡特·布莱克伍德 (Merricat Blackwood) 颠覆了哥特式比喻，与其说是受害者，不如说是施害者。1 从梅里卡特的第一次出现，我们就了解到她的喜爱对于死帽蘑菇来说，2 是一种剧毒真菌，每年导致大多数致命蘑菇中毒：她解释道，“我的名字是玛丽·凯瑟琳·布莱克伍德。我十八岁了， 。 。 。我喜欢我的妹妹康斯坦斯。 。 。以及鹅膏菌（Amanita phalloides），即死亡杯蘑菇。我家里的其他人都死了。”3 从一开始，梅里卡特就体现了哥特式想象与自然想象的交集，她将对毒蘑菇的邪恶热爱等同于与康斯坦斯一起维持安静、受庇护的生活。在《城堡》中，生态哥特式是通过光谱环境、生态病、复仇的本性（包括人类和超人类）以及不可思议的身体和空间而产生的。我们利用海伦·豪瑟（Helen Houser）和莎拉·贾奎特·雷（Sarah Jaquette Ray）等生态批评理论家以及对杰克逊的哥特式批评，试图探索《城堡》中生态哥特式的相互联系和重要性，研究生态病叙事如何“将我们从个人的微观尺度带入到了现实世界”。机构、国家和地球的宏观尺度”，并密切关注小说中真菌的使用，作为这些地方、结构和身体的隐喻——同时也是对抗这些地方、结构和身体的媒介。4杰克逊的作品经常受到审视，卡斯尔以哥特式环境为基础，使其成为杰克逊作品中的独特研究。杰克逊的环境影响为 122 美国小说研究提供了新的框架，通过该框架来解读地点、结构和身体本身的哥特式。梅里卡特和康斯坦斯孤立的家和花园的界限空间，以及他们生活中这个自然空间的越界和相互联系，坚持对这篇简短而复杂的文本进行生态哥特式的解读。在使用真菌作为我们讨论的焦点时，在更广泛的植物和自然考虑的支持下，我们试图明确环境对于布莱克伍德姐妹侵占哥特式空间和违反哥特式文学期望的重要性。正如海伦·豪瑟（Helen Houser）所写，我们调查并区分“在生态病（或生态哥特式）小说中，人类和超越人类的世界不仅相互作用，而且更重要的是，5《城堡》中自然世界（特别是真菌和植物世界）的入侵不仅对哥特式风格造成了破坏，而且还瓦解了哥特式主角的期望、性别角色和病态的空间。安东尼·卡马拉（Anthony Camara）在关于世纪末文学中真菌转变的文章中写道，真菌“加入了文学怪物的行列”，因为它呈现出“极端的形态可塑性”6，触动了我们对未知、无法分类和危险的焦虑。 。特别是在杰克逊的作品中，真菌是哥特式文学的有效象征——它扎根于大地，并且在腐烂中生长——通过梅里卡特对鹅膏菌的喜爱，城堡（de）构成了哥特式文学的期望和焦虑。雪莉·杰克逊 (Shirley Jackson) 和 Castle 的哥特式起源 雪莉·杰克逊 (Shirley Jackson) 1916 年出生于旧金山，成年后大部分时间与丈夫斯坦利·埃德加·海曼 (Stanley Edgar Hyman) 一起在纽约和佛蒙特州度过。他们的四个孩子； 7 杰克逊以其恐怖、心理紧张、文学悬疑和家庭喜剧作品而闻名，包括《彩票》、《Hangsaman》和《鬼屋》等著名作品。8 在杰克逊自己的作品中，许多传记（包括露丝·富兰克林的《闹鬼的生活》），并出版了……