Gotieke teksten en postkoloniale visies in Couperus ‘De stille Kracht’

Abstract

This article rereads Couperus’s classic novel The Silent Force through a contemporary post-colonial lens firmly situated within feminist literary theory, especially the colonial gothic as applied by Tabish Khair and Gayatri Spivak. Mediated by proven and established gothic conventions the Coloniser is ultimately confronted by their own inability to bridge the gap between the colonised soul and their own. As such the colonial gothic forces a western embodiment as ‘Other’. This exciting new reading enables, in particular, the centrality of the gothic manuscript as challenging riddle to be analysed. It is from within that perspective, that surprising new interpretations of some of the key protagonists and pivotal scenes within the novel emerge.