Ending Caleb Williams: on storytelling influencing William Godwin’s politics

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Peterson Roberto da
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Ciências do Estado (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/revice/article/view/e5057
• topic: Willian Godwin; Caleb Williams; Storytelling; Willian Godwin; Caleb Williams; Narrativa; Willian Godwin; Caleb Williams; Narrativa

William Godwin wrote the Gothic novel Things as They Are; or, the Adventures of Caleb Williams in 1794 as a way to spread political and philosophical ideas. I begin this article by reviewing the literature to demonstrate how his theoretical ideas influenced both his decision to write fiction and the kind of fiction he wrote, showing how the author used and innovated tropes of the Gothic genre in order to convey his ideas to a larger audience. Then, I compare two divergent perspectives in the scholarship regarding the way his fictional storytelling influenced his political and philosophical ideas, in particular through commentary on the meaning and impact of last-minute changes to the ending of Caleb Williams. I argue this ambiguous relationship between storytelling and politics in Godwin’s work is relevant to contemporary political reflections on the relationship between representation and political action, or how the stories people tell about the human condition and their political realities might affect their ideas, actions and social relations.