This page chronicles my master’s thesis, “Lost in Necropolis: The Continuation of Castle-Narrative beyond the Novel or Cinema, and into Metroidvania.” I attended the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies (represent, homies) at Manchester Metropolitan University. I started writing my thesis around December 2017 (or thereabouts); I finished it September 26th, 2018 when I returned home to Michigan. MMU accepted it, and my diploma was certified December 7th, 2018. I received it later in the year through international mail.
Here’s the original abstract:
This dissertation concerns terror in Gothic stories, wherein space is predominant, and bigger than the monsters inside. These spaces are examined according to Mikhail Bakhtin’s chronotope of castle-narrative, which outlines the Gothic as a storytelling mode according to conventions of the novel. This dissertation moves beyond the novel, and examines the castle-narrative as told through motion in response to Gothic affect—this can be found all across media, and manifests according to six qualities of Gothic space by which time is always a factor. Chapter 1 outlines these qualities in further detail, and applies them to older Gothic media, from Radcliffean novels to 20th century cinema. Chapter 2 examines ergodic forms of Gothic castle-narrative, told by speedrunners inside videogames called Metroidvania, the two having evolved hand-in-hand; it also examines perennial Gothic devices that mutate within conventions of media, but also in response to narratives of motion through Gothic space rife with doubles: gender, the labyrinth, and the Other. Chapter 3 close-reads two Metroidvania, the ur-text, Metroid (1986), and the recent, critically-acclaimed Hollow Knight (2017).
My work on Metroidvania has changed greatly since writing this thesis; as of July 2022, it is now tied to a new non-profit book series about Gothic Communism I’m currently writing/illustrating. The first book in that series, my thesis volume, functions like an independent PhD on—amongst other things—Metroidvania. For more information on my Metroidvania work at large, refer to my About the Author page.