Sarah Waters stand out as a distinctive literary voice in contemporary British fiction, known for her nuanced revival of the Gothic mode to explore hidden dimensions of desire, identity, and historical repression. This article examines how Waters employs Gothic aesthetics—not merely as stylistic embellishment, but as a powerful narrative strategy—to represent lesbian identity within rigidly patriarchal and heteronormative historical contexts. Through a close reading of select novels, including Affinity, Fingersmith, Tipping the Velvet, and The Little Stranger, the study investigates how tropes such as haunted houses, ghostly presences, madness, and confinement are reimagined to symbolise repressed same-sex desire and social marginalisation. Positioning Waters within the broader tradition of neo-Victorian and queer Gothic fiction, the article interrogates how she both subverts and extends Gothic conventions to create space for queer expression where it was historically denied. Waters' women do not simply inhabit dark, oppressive spaces—they disrupt them, haunting the very narratives that once silenced them. The Gothic thus becomes a mode of both concealment and revelation, reflecting the tension between societal erasure and individual desire. By weaving together feminist literary criticism, queer theory, and Gothic studies, this article offers a richly textured analysis of Waters’ contribution to contemporary literature and her redefinition of both genre and gender. In illuminating the interplay between haunting and desire, past and present, this study reveals how Waters’ fiction not only challenges literary norms but also reclaims silenced histories. Her novels are not just acts of storytelling but also acts of resistance—literary spaces where the ghosts of history are invited to speak.
Sarah Waters, Gothic literature, lesbian identity, queer theory, historical fiction, neo-Victorian, same-sex desire, British novels, gender studies, English literature.
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