Mapping the Haunted City: Ecogothic London in The Great God Pan
Makaleler > Tam Makale · 2026
Yazarlar: Ebru Tufan
Bitig Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, Uluslararası, 2026, cilt 6, ss 102-116
DOI: 10.69787/bitigefd.1864767
Özet
In The Great God Pan, London emerges as an ecogothic site where the urban landscape becomes a vessel for both environmental and historical hauntings. The streets of London mirror the ancient forests beyond, which reveal the city as a haunted space shaped by the lingering presence of Rome and the invasion of a natural force from the past. Therefore, London becomes an ecogothic site where urban space is haunted by pagan and natural past. In that sense, it is revealed that London is a space that is not only opposed to the forest but also as an extension, a site of ecological and historical invasion. Even though London stands at the threshold of empire and is portrayed as an urban center that embodies culture, progress, and modernity, The Great God Pan portrays a deeper and more enduring human vulnerability under its appearance. Therefore, despite its existence as the centre of civilisation, the city cannot avoid the timeless phenomena of human incapacity when confronted with forces beyond human control. Considering all this, Machen’s novel demonstrates that even a city like London is vulnerable to ecogothic elements in which the veil of modernity is shattered by the revival of primal and inhuman forces. The imperial city is therefore re-portrayed as an ecogothic setting in which the vulnerability of human domination becomes questionable. This vulnerability of London means that it cannot resist or suppress its primal past. The city, as a representation of civilization collapses under the anxieties of returning pagan and natural forces. Therefore, this study examines how Machen alters the imperial center into a haunted geography which demonstrates that progress and culture only mask a constant primitivity by Robert Tally Jr.’s spatial theory and from an ecogothic perspective. The old, pagan, and natural forces return to destabilise the urban order of London. Consequently, the city mirrors the human mind itself, mapped but forever invaded by what it cannot control.