Session

Language and Culture

Description

The Thirteenth Tale is a contemporary Gothic novel written by Diane Setterfield, in which the author included various elements of the original 18 th century genre, building up her plot and basing her characters on different classic works that are scattered throughout the storyline. This essay deals with the intertextuality between the book and one of the classic narratives it references, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. The main focus of the paper is on the phenomenon of twins that characterizes both fictions. For attentive readers both the analogy and dichotomy between the two novels are evident, though Setterfield’s story introduces a new third sibling, giving to her own chain of events a fresh, eerie extension and a complexity to the plot.

Keywords:

Setterfield, Thirteenth Tale, Intertextuality, James

Session Chair

Drita Xhemaili

Session Co-Chair

Manjola Brahaj Halili

Proceedings Editor

Edmond Hajrizi

ISBN

978-9951-437-96-7

First Page

8

Last Page

12

Location

Lipjan, Kosovo

Start Date

31-10-2020 3:15 PM

End Date

31-10-2020 4:45 PM

DOI

10.33107/ubt-ic.2020.248

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Oct 31st, 3:15 PM Oct 31st, 4:45 PM

Intertextuality and the Twin Phenomenon between The Thirteenth Tale and The Turn of the Screw

Lipjan, Kosovo

The Thirteenth Tale is a contemporary Gothic novel written by Diane Setterfield, in which the author included various elements of the original 18 th century genre, building up her plot and basing her characters on different classic works that are scattered throughout the storyline. This essay deals with the intertextuality between the book and one of the classic narratives it references, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. The main focus of the paper is on the phenomenon of twins that characterizes both fictions. For attentive readers both the analogy and dichotomy between the two novels are evident, though Setterfield’s story introduces a new third sibling, giving to her own chain of events a fresh, eerie extension and a complexity to the plot.