My thesis comprises of a novel and critical essay, considering twentieth and twenty-first century Eco-Gothic literature that reinforces the female body and nature as being located outside of humanity. Alongisde this, those that disrupt and challenge such presentations, using a connection with nature in order to present new and constantly evolving feminist discourses. The key questions underpinning my novel are: 

Why does the Gothic genre continue to reinforce dualistic portrayals of women and nature? 

Is that a reflection of wider societal attitudes or the genre itself?

I propose that the genre conventions of the Eco-Gothic form can be used to evaluate presentations of the female body. The novel, therefore, is an attempt to recognise and then move beyond these dualities, creatively enacting the questions investigated by the critical component of my work.

The critical works of Donna Haraway (such as Staying with the Trouble) and Catherine Spooner’s essay ‘Unsettling Feminism’, have both played an integral role in forming the foundations of this project.