Time and again: anachronism and the gothic in Vonne van der Meer's Spookliefde

Abstract

This article examines Vonne van der Meer’s Spookliefde. Een Iers verhaal (Ghost Love. An Irish Tale, 1995) with a Gothic frame of interpretation. Taking my cue from the suggestion made by Chris Baldick and Robert Mighall (2000) that Gothic criticism should pay more attention to historical and geographical references, I argue that Spookliefde‘s Irish setting is a realistic setting for exploring the tensions and parallels between sexual desire and religious desire, between determinacy and surrender. The analysis of anachronism in Spookliefde shows the potential connections between historical context and modernisation processes at the time of publication. At the same time, Spookliefde contests Baldick and Mighall’s argument that Gothic novels confirm modern values through anachronisms.