Domestic Entrapment and Supernatural Protection: Mapping the Ambiguous Relationship Between Female Subject and Domestic Space in Shirley Jackson's "House Novels"

Abstract

Shirley Jackson’s three “house novels” offer new ways of understanding the tensions between women and their domestic spaces in the post-World War II American society. Studying The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and The Sundial through the lenses of Gothic literature and spatial theory gives literary critics and scholars valuable insights into Jackson’s representation of women and how they interact with and form relationships to their public and private spheres. This paper will apply Robert Tally’s mapping concept to consider each of the houses represented within Jackson’s novels as a map portraying the ambiguous relationship between female subject and domestic space.