Rethinking the Gothic stereotype with Baudelaire's Orphans by Lemony Snicket (1999-2006; 2017-2019)

Abstract

The thirteen-book series A Series of Unfortunate Events (1999-2006) by the American author Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) has been adapted on the streaming platform Netflix between 2017 and 2019, more than ten years after the last volume was published. Both on paper and on screen, A Series mainly targets children aged 9 to 12 and testifies the popularity of the genre for young readerships and audiences – even crossover ones. It further questions the stereotypes of the Gothic genre, especially in the 21^st century which seems to put more emphasis on the notion of aesthetics than on that of content. A new relationship between form and substance in visual media for the young is thus created. This study has a dual purpose: although not a comparative analysis, the article shall analyse the themes and the structure of A Series on paper and in the TV adaptation from the perspective of ‘gothicity’. A few aspects of the reasons why A Series is a Gothic work shall be discussed here, as for instance its use of intertextuality and intermediality, but also the use of visual and sound aesthetics. We shall see how contemporary Gothic fictions for young audiences are to be understood nowadays through the spectrum of ‘aesthetics’.