New criticism (apparitionist)

Abstract

To date, almost every interpretation of The Turn of the Screw takes either the apparitionist stance (the ghosts are real, the governess sane) or the non-apparitionist (the ghosts are unreal, figments of the governess’s diseased imagination). Many source studies (above) argue for an apparitionist reading, and while it is an oversimplification to say that all interpretative studies which argue for the ghosts’ reality are New Critical in nature, it is a fact that most of them are, either entirely or in part. Non-apparitionist readers often tend to be psychological critics; if the governess can be proved insane, one need not argue the reality of the ghosts. Conversely, if the ghosts are real, the best way to prove it is through the New Critical technique of linking myriad bits of evidence to reveal a central and incontrovertible truth that has nothing to do with any individual’s perception.