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Camilla Nelson, Spooky Jane: Women, History, and Horror in Death Comes to Pemberley, Adaptation, Volume 9, Issue 3, 1 December 2016, Pages 377–392, https://doi.org/10.1093/adaptation/apw035
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Abstract
This essay analyses the BBC Masterpiece production of Death Comes to Pemberley in the context of a proliferating field of gothic, horror, and paranormal adaptations of Austen, focusing on the gothic as a means of addressing issues of history, gender, and power. It argues that if historical identities are about control and order, and the ordering of time is a means of identity formation, then the writing of history should therefore be considered as a means of producing disciplined historical subjects. In this case, there may well be a liminal aspect to the anarchic, playful, and female-centred rewriting of history that is found in Jane Austen story worlds, which, in their popular gothic manifestations, seem increasingly bent on tearing history from its roots.