Masters Theses

Adair, Gerald M. "Feasting with Banquo: The Ghost Stories of Fritz Leiber." Florida Atlantic University, 2000.

Discusses Le Fanu's "Green Tea" and Le Fanu's influence on Leiber's ghost stories, especially Our Lady of Darkness.

Ballantyne, Shirlyn. "The Creations of a 'Personal Appearance Artist': Characterization in Five Novels by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu." Brigham Young University, 1968.

Canoy, Mary Zeno. "Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 'A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family': A Parallel." Catholic University of America, 1948.

Cullington, Elizabeth. "Anxiety, Withdrawal and the Death of the Ego in the Later Work of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 1814-1873." University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1971.

An interesting study influenced by the psychological writings of R. D. Laing and critic Masao Mitoshi. Explores "the death of the ego" in such later works as Uncle Silas, Haunted Lives, "Carmilla," and "The Room in the Dragon Volant." Provides perceptive commentary showing how these works reflect Le Fanu's withdrawal from society in his later years. An appendix attempts to attribute articles to Le Fanu in The Dublin University Magazine. However, according to The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, these items are not Le Fanu's works. She mentions the "Ferris-texts" as have recent scholars. At times rather awkwardly written, this study, nevertheless, bears consultation.

Cybulski, Angela Marie. "Signs of Enervation and Emancipation: The Vampire Myth as Metaphor for Gender Roles and the Dynamics of Interpersonal Relationships in the Victorian Novel." California State University, Long Beach, 1999.

Davis, Paul E. H., "Defying a Label: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and the Sensation Novel." University of Buckingham, 1994.

I was generously helped by Sir Victor Le Fanu, William Le Fanu and Richard Le Fanu. My thesis examines and challenges the way that Le Fanu's highly successful novels of the 1860s are often erroneously and unfairly dismissed as mere Sensation Novels. I argued that his books operate on several levels and that he should be described more accurately as a horror/mystery writer whose novels have more in common with Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) than with Mrs Henry Wood's East Lynne (1861).

Flender, Clarissa. "Through the Dark Corridors of the Human Mind: Profiles and Perspectives of Selected Novels of the Anglo-Irish Victorian Sheridan Le Fanu." Siegen University, 2005.

A good study of selected novels that show the development of Le Fanu's use of the Gothic and how it shaped his crime and mystery fiction. Asserts that Le Fanu's emphasis in the psychology of his characters brings this type of fiction to full fruition. Studies the point of view of the sometimes unreliable narrators in these works to show that they explore the corruption and evil in Victorian society.

Gabusi, Valentina. "Investigare il Sovrannaturale: Hesselius, John Silence, Carnacki." University of Bologna, 2005.

Grant, Jane. "Victims, Vampires and Viragos: Narrative Structure in Le Fanu's Uncle Silas, "Carmilla," and Willing to Die." University of Sydney, 1995.

Halloran, Mary T. "The Superiority of Edgar Allan Poe over that of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu in the Treatment of the Weird." Catholic University of America, 1934.

Harker, Randal. "Beyond Sensation: Narrative and Moral Complexity in the Fiction of J.S. Le Fanu." University of Calgary, Canada, 1978.

Holtzendorff, Frida von. Das Zimmer im 'Fliegenden Drachen' aus den Aufzeichnungen des Dr. Hesselius. Giessen Lindenstruth, 2008.

Johnson, Matthew Taylor. "From Gothic to Ghost Story: the Emergence of the Modern Supernatural Horror Tale." James Madison University, 1992

Larner, Carmen. "Horror Aesthetics in the British Ghost Story: A Study of Selected Short Fiction of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and M.R. James." California State University, Dominguez Hills, 2005.

A study of selected works in the ghost story tradition by Le Fanu and M. R. James. Larner writes: "The works of these authors, like other short stories classified as literary horror, have a common narrative structure--the intrusion and emergence of the irrational. Within this narrative structure lie two significant aesthetic conventions of the horror genre: the use of aesthetic distancing and depictions of categorical violations."

Magri, Kevin Stephen. "Crossing Thresholds: Domestic Transgression in Two Victorian Vampire Romances." University of Waterloo, 2001.

This thesis examines domestic control, conflict, and resolution in Le Fanu's "Carmilla" (1872) and Stoker's Dracula (1897). In these texts, the vampire is a "strange" parent who threatens English domesticity. The vampire preys upon the unstable identity formation of English bourgeois dependants and corrupts the strict gender and sexual codes governing their homes. By crossing boundaries, the vampire challenges the stability of the nuclear family and, as a consequence, puts at risk England's future. The methodology draws upon Foucauldian theory, and gender and gothic studies.

Marguerite, Marie Elise Patricia. "Analysis and Review of the Gothic-Oriented Narrative Treatment in Uncle Silas (1864) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu." La Reunion, 1998.

McGeever, Sean. "In a Glass Darkly: Le Fanu's Victorian Casebook." San Francisco State University, 1995.

A good study placing the five stories of Le Fanu's collection against the background of serious issues in Victorian society. It is thus more than a group of terror tales, and it shows Le Fanu's pessimistic outlook. The book presages themes in modern literature and shows that Le Fanu could not be optimistic about the present and future of his world.

Measles, Susan L. "Gynephobia in the Works of Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, and Angela Carter." Tennessee Technical University, 2004

Meisart, Michele F. "Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, an Initiator of the Psychological Thriller." University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 1973.

Mitra, Shahana. "Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Green Tea' and 'Carmilla: The Beginnings of the Modern Fantastic as a Literature of Subversion." University of Regina, 1995.

Morrison, Frances Rowena. "An Introduction to the Short Stories of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu." University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1971.

Expresses the prevalent view of Le Fanu at the time of writing as a master of human psychology. Studies seven short stories: "Green Tea," "The Familiar," "Mr. Justice Harbottle," "Carmilla," "Squire Toby's Will," "Madam Crowl's Ghost"d "Schalken the Painter." Argues the predominant structure of these tales may be described as "a kinetic shift" in Le Fanu's depiction of the supernatural. This "level of psychological intensity" is motivated with a sense of guilt, which "may be manifested in more than one form." Bears consultation.

Peyre-Ropers, Lydie. "Translation with Commentary of Three Ghost Stories of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries by Sheridan Le Fanu, Henry James, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman." Universite de Lille, 1995.

Ruane, Richard T. "Performing 'Camp, Vamp and Femme Fatale Revisiting, Reinventing and Retelling the Lives of Post-death, Retro-Gothic Women." University of North Texas, 1997.

Schnepf, Chester H. E. "A Comparative Study of the Protagonist's Dilemma in the Works of Edgar Allan Poe and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: The Emergence of the Modern Gothic Tradition." Hofstra University, 1974.

Smith, Jeffrey Wayne. "The Gothic Mind of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and Portrayal of Evil within His Work: A Study of 'Green Tea' and 'Carmilla'." Mississippi College, 2004.

Approaches Le Fanu from the standpoint of the problem of evil. Smith argues that in Le Fanu's fiction the natural and supernatural worlds collide; and the point of collision produces evil. Stresses the innocence of the Rev. Mr. Jennings in "Green Tea" and the inevitability of his suicide. Explores the ideas of attraction and repulsion in "Carmilla," and the protagonist, Laura, is a victim of the conflict between the natural and supernatural worlds.

Timol, Fatma. "Obsessions and Evolutions in 'Green Tea' (1869) and 'The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh' (1838) by Sheridan Le Fanu." La Reunion, 1999.

Verlisier, Christian. "Repression and Transgression in 'Carmilla' by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu." La Reunion, 1998.

Webb, Megan Christel. "'And drew in her breath with a hissing sound': The Emergence of the Female Vampire in Victorian Literature." Louisiana Tech University, 2003.

Wegley, Mark. "Fearing the Unknowable: A Theoretical Approach to Reevaluating the Literary Worth of Le Fanu's Short Fiction of the Fantastic." Boise State University, 2000.

Studies Le Fanu's works from the point of view of deconstructive criticism. Argues a seriousness and attention to great philosophical import in Le Fanu that is often overlooked. Wegley concludes that "Every system, whether scientific or spiritual, is questioned beyond ones ability to posit a new system that coheres. This is the fear that Le Fanu inspires: that knowledge (which must be deduced logically) is forever deferred. His technique for demonstrating this deferrel is the use of the fantastic as a literary device, to its utmost capacity. In doing so he suceeds in a "deconstructive" enterprise, long before the employment of that term."

Wellman, Wade. "Literary Treatments of the Vampire." University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1963.

The well-known horror and fantasy writer Manly Wade Wellman authors this thesis, which takes Montague Summers's studies of the vampire The Vampire: His Kith and Kin and The Vampire in Europe to focus on the way John Polidori, Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, F. Marion Crawford, and E.F. Benson treat the legend of the vampire. Notes the lesbian implications of Le Fanu's "Carmilla" and draws from Peter Penzoldt's The Supernatural in Fiction on the subject.

Williams, Lauren E. "Visualizing the Vampire: Carmilla (1872) and the Portrayal of Desire." University of Cincinnati, 2009.

Wohl, Sheri. "Sexuality and Breached Barriers in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Carmilla.'" California State University, Dominguez Hills, 2006.