"Outside the Gate": family, selfhood, and post-traumatic growth in Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House

Abstract

Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House, published in 1959, emerged during a period of familial reimagination. Indeed, the predominantly white, nuclear, and patriarchal family structure demanded by society now faced new scrutiny as people began considering the destruction these dynamics imposed on the individual. Jackson’s novel particularly attends to this debilitating relationship between controlling parental figures and daughters. By reading through the lens of trauma theory more broadly, this essay argues that Jackson’s text illuminates the complexities of familial trauma as well as the nuances of post-traumatic growth (PTG).