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  • 5. Spooner - Satania revised(1)

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My Friend the Devil: Gothic Comics, the Whimsical Macabre and Rewriting William Blake in Vehlmann and Kerascoët’s Satania

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

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My Friend the Devil: Gothic Comics, the Whimsical Macabre and Rewriting William Blake in Vehlmann and Kerascoët’s Satania. / Spooner, Catherine.
In: Gothic Studies, Vol. 25, No. 3, 01.11.2023, p. 318-334.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Harvard

Spooner, C 2023, 'My Friend the Devil: Gothic Comics, the Whimsical Macabre and Rewriting William Blake in Vehlmann and Kerascoët’s Satania', Gothic Studies, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 318-334. https://doi.org/10.3366/gothic.2023.0178

APA

Spooner, C. (2023). My Friend the Devil: Gothic Comics, the Whimsical Macabre and Rewriting William Blake in Vehlmann and Kerascoët’s Satania. Gothic Studies, 25(3), 318-334. https://doi.org/10.3366/gothic.2023.0178

Vancouver

Spooner C. My Friend the Devil: Gothic Comics, the Whimsical Macabre and Rewriting William Blake in Vehlmann and Kerascoët’s Satania. Gothic Studies. 2023 Nov 1;25(3):318-334. doi: 10.3366/gothic.2023.0178

Author

Spooner, Catherine. / My Friend the Devil : Gothic Comics, the Whimsical Macabre and Rewriting William Blake in Vehlmann and Kerascoët’s Satania. In: Gothic Studies. 2023 ; Vol. 25, No. 3. pp. 318-334.

Bibtex

@article{2161f9ee108a41998373a353a0f746e7,
title = "My Friend the Devil: Gothic Comics, the Whimsical Macabre and Rewriting William Blake in Vehlmann and Kerasco{\"e}t{\textquoteright}s Satania",
abstract = "This article develops the concept of the {\textquoteleft}whimsical macabre{\textquoteright}, introduced in my book Post-millennial Gothic: Comedy, Romance and the Rise of Happy Gothic (2017) to refer to texts which deliberately fuse the comic and cute with the sinister, monstrous or grotesque. I propose that Fabien Vehlmann and Kerasco{\"e}t{\textquoteright}s graphic novel Satania (2016) extends the whimsical macabre in new directions, by drawing on the work of Romantic poet and artist William Blake, whose illustrated books are often cited as forerunners of modern comics. By rewriting Blake{\textquoteright}s visionary account of a journey into the infernal regions in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793) and alluding to Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789/1794), Satania reveals the serious ethical dimensions that underlie the whimsical macabre. In doing so, it interrogates and complicates the maturational narrative associated with children{\textquoteright}s and young adult literature. The article concludes by suggesting that Satania{\textquoteright}s heroine Charlie{\textquoteright}s relationship with her demon draws on a Blakeian model of friendship in opposition, pointing towards a {\textquoteleft}reparative{\textquoteright} form of Gothic in which otherness is neither erased or expelled, but embraced and cherished. ",
keywords = "Gothic literature, Comics, Graphic novels, William Blake, devil, cute, childhood, horror, YA literature, hell, underworld, Gothic",
author = "Catherine Spooner",
year = "2023",
month = nov,
day = "1",
doi = "10.3366/gothic.2023.0178",
language = "English",
volume = "25",
pages = "318--334",
journal = "Gothic Studies",
issn = "1362-7937",
publisher = "Manchester University Press",
number = "3",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - My Friend the Devil

T2 - Gothic Comics, the Whimsical Macabre and Rewriting William Blake in Vehlmann and Kerascoët’s Satania

AU - Spooner, Catherine

PY - 2023/11/1

Y1 - 2023/11/1

N2 - This article develops the concept of the ‘whimsical macabre’, introduced in my book Post-millennial Gothic: Comedy, Romance and the Rise of Happy Gothic (2017) to refer to texts which deliberately fuse the comic and cute with the sinister, monstrous or grotesque. I propose that Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët’s graphic novel Satania (2016) extends the whimsical macabre in new directions, by drawing on the work of Romantic poet and artist William Blake, whose illustrated books are often cited as forerunners of modern comics. By rewriting Blake’s visionary account of a journey into the infernal regions in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793) and alluding to Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789/1794), Satania reveals the serious ethical dimensions that underlie the whimsical macabre. In doing so, it interrogates and complicates the maturational narrative associated with children’s and young adult literature. The article concludes by suggesting that Satania’s heroine Charlie’s relationship with her demon draws on a Blakeian model of friendship in opposition, pointing towards a ‘reparative’ form of Gothic in which otherness is neither erased or expelled, but embraced and cherished.

AB - This article develops the concept of the ‘whimsical macabre’, introduced in my book Post-millennial Gothic: Comedy, Romance and the Rise of Happy Gothic (2017) to refer to texts which deliberately fuse the comic and cute with the sinister, monstrous or grotesque. I propose that Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët’s graphic novel Satania (2016) extends the whimsical macabre in new directions, by drawing on the work of Romantic poet and artist William Blake, whose illustrated books are often cited as forerunners of modern comics. By rewriting Blake’s visionary account of a journey into the infernal regions in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793) and alluding to Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789/1794), Satania reveals the serious ethical dimensions that underlie the whimsical macabre. In doing so, it interrogates and complicates the maturational narrative associated with children’s and young adult literature. The article concludes by suggesting that Satania’s heroine Charlie’s relationship with her demon draws on a Blakeian model of friendship in opposition, pointing towards a ‘reparative’ form of Gothic in which otherness is neither erased or expelled, but embraced and cherished.

KW - Gothic literature

KW - Comics

KW - Graphic novels

KW - William Blake

KW - devil

KW - cute

KW - childhood

KW - horror

KW - YA literature

KW - hell

KW - underworld

KW - Gothic

U2 - 10.3366/gothic.2023.0178

DO - 10.3366/gothic.2023.0178

M3 - Journal article

VL - 25

SP - 318

EP - 334

JO - Gothic Studies

JF - Gothic Studies

SN - 1362-7937

IS - 3

ER -