Hi! I’m Juliet, I have a degree in Language and Literature, and today I wanted to discuss Gothic romances, particularly Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Why is it such a controversial classic? Rebecca has fascinated readers since 1938, sparking wildly different interpretations, much like other stories that intertwine love and violence. In this video, we’ll dive into the history of Gothic romances and analyze this fascinating novel to understand why women have been drawn to these stories, and why society has always been afraid of them. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:11 - Dark Love 04:21 - Rebecca, Fantasy and Projection 08:29 - Confessions, Justifications and Interpretations 12:20 - Love Story or Not? 15:10 - Critical Reading of Relationships 17:10 - Conclusion Sources: Beauman, Sally. “Afterword.” Rebecca, Virago Modern Classics, 2003. Hirst, Holly. “Georgette Heyer and Redefining the Gothic Romance.” Georgette Heyer, History and Historical Fiction, UCL Press, 2021, pp. 105–18. Hitchcock, Alfred. Rebecca. United Artists, 1940. Linkin, Harriet Kramer. “‘The Deceptively Strategic Narrator of “Rebecca.”’” Journal of Narrative Theory, vol. 46, no. 2, 2016, pp. 223–53. Massé, Michelle A. “Gothic Repetition: Husbands, Horrors, and Things That Go Bump in the Night.” Signs, vol. 15, no. 4, 1990, pp. 679–709. Moody, Stephanie. “Identification, Affect, and Escape. Theorizing Popular Romance Reading.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, vol. 16, no. 1, 2015, pp. 105-123. Russ, Joanna. “Somebody's Trying to Kill Me and I Think It's My Husband: The Modern Gothic.” The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 6, no. 4, 1973, pp. 666-691. #rebecca #daphnedumaurier #booktube #reading #novel #gothic #gothicliterature #romancebooks