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.
Anderson, Donald Travis. "The Female Vampire and the Politics of Gender." University of
Alberta, 1992.
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).
Duncan, Mary. "Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 1814-73: A Critical Study." B.A. Thesis, Liverpool
University, 1954.
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.
Harse, Katherine. "Horrible Shadow: Otherness in Nineteenth-Century Gothic and Speculative
Fiction." University of Calgary, 1995.
A study of "the other" in Gothic fiction that contends while the vampires Lord Ruthven and Dracula
present a hard, impenetrable evil, Carmilla creates a vampire who is an enigma, but has some
human qualities as well.
Hobbs, Michelle J. "Reshaping the Archetype: Mythmaking and Matriarchy in Anne Rice's
'Vampire Chronicles.'" Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1997.
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.
Mai, Emily. "Writing the Vampire: Constitutions of Gender in 'Carmilla,' Dracula, and Buffy the
Vampire Slayer." Vanderbilt University, 2009.
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" and "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.
Mosca, Roberta. "La Donna Vampiro: J. Sheridan Le Fanu e Anne Rice." Universita degli Studi
Gabriele D'Annunzio di Chieti e Pescara, 2008-2009.
Parker, Berlinda Zellner. "The Narcotic Gaze: Ocular Imagery and the Vampire Motif in
"Christabel," "Carmilla," and Dracula." Florida Atlantic University, 1982.
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.
Postol, Sander Moses. "The Dublin University Magazine, 1838-1842 and 1861-1864." University of
Illinois, 1950.
A very good and well-researched study of the history of the magazine that attempts to determine
exactly how long Le Fanu was editor. There is conflicting information. Based on Michael Sadleir's
study in the Bibliographical journal of Ireland (see Greenwood bibliography). Discusses some of
Le Fanu's fiction in the magazine.
Rodriguez, Francisco Jose. "Did You See a Ghost?: An Attempt at defining the fantastic in 'Green
Tea,' 'The Familiar,' and 'Mr. Justice Harbottle' by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu." University of
Neuchatel, 2000.
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.
Sowards, Heather. "Chasing Demons: Female Villains and Narrative Strategy in Victorian
Sensation Fiction." Marshall University, 2003.
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.
A stylistic analysis that shows that Le Fanu crafted the text by utilizing fragments of current
scientific information, psychological theories exclusive of Freud and contemporary cultural
influences. It challenged the science and theology of Le Fanu's day.