Master’s Thesis

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 thesis statement has evolved on the years. It is tied to my book, Sex Positivity, which I am currently in the process of writing/illustrating (the deadline is Halloween, 2023). Here are some related posts