抄録
This paper deals with a contemporary Gothic novel, The White Body of Evening (2002) written by A. L. McCann. Its settings are mainly Melbourne and Vienna from the 1890's to the early 1920's. In it, lives of a father and his son, who create artistic works originating from their sexual obsessions, are described and interwoven with critical events in Australian history. One of the author's aims of the novel is to mythologize the city of Melbourne, and in McCann's mythologized Melbourne, many arcades, represented by the Eastern Arcade, are impressively depicted. This paper will examine how McCann functionalizes the arcades in the story and makes them associated with its characters, which are deeply linked with the author's own conception of modernity. It can be found in McCann's academic essay, "The Royal Arcade and the Empty Time of Fashion." Some of the academic writings of McCann foreshadowed theoretical frameworks for his creative writing. Focusing on McCann's formula of modernity, the paper will investigate intertextual relationships between The White Body of Evening and "The Royal Arcade and the Empty Time of Fashion" and a specific hidden pattern or movement which drives the story.