Maturin’s Catholic Heirs: Expanding the Limits of Irish Gothic

Abstract

Irish Gothic has become a prominent critical category in Irish and Gothic studies, thanks to pioneering work by Julian Moynahan, Seamus Deane, Roy Foster, W. J. Mc Cor mack, Siobhân Kilfeather, and others. However, in accordance with the sacred codes of academic fashion- mongering, the more prominence a category achieves the more ques- tions it receives. Key questions include: is Irish Gothic a mode or a form, a genre or a subgenre, a tradition or an illusion? Are its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors solely Protestant? What can Irish Gothic texts reveal about their historical contexts — and vice versa? And which methodologies can best conceptualize the interactions between Irish Gothic and Irish history?¹