本文旨在探討女性誌異小說如何重新詮釋父權制度下的文化產物－啟蒙運動。第一部分首先勾勒十八世紀的啟蒙思想中的性別傲慢與偏見。接著從美學、心理學、與認識論的角度出發，檢視誌異小說教母安．芮德克里夫的經典之作《舞多佛的秘密》如何同時接納並挑戰以男性為中心的啟蒙論述。就美學論，該小說挪用柏克柔美與雄渾 (beauty and sublime) 的二元對立來描寫風景，但卻巧妙地凸顯出女性的柔美如何淡化男性的雄渾。就心理學論，該小說認可當代啟蒙論述中對女性情感的焦慮，但卻彰顯女性特有的同情 (sympathy) 足以為自己與他人帶來救贖。就認識論層面而言，該小說逆寫啟蒙男性的特權：旅行與文字，並認為圖畫、故事與音樂才是引領女性走向知識的方法。芮氏之作乃經典的女性誌異小說，不僅因為其作者的性別，更因為它為當代女性發出了不平之鳴，填補了啟蒙論述中的性別空缺。

This essay intends to investigate how a Romantic female gothic novel encapsulates and counteracts the male-oriented Enlightenment discourses within which it is produced. The essay opens with an account of the gender-specific tension inherent in any Enlightenment project, thus delineating its centrifugal and exclusive nature. The Mystery of Udolpho appropriates Edmund Burke’s aesthetic theory of taste, of the dichotomy between beauty and sublimity in order to prioritize feminine beauty and undermine the indiscriminate nature of Enlightenment taste. The novel also recognizes women’s role as victims of sensibility, only to emphasize women’s capability to sympathize with the sufferers, a capability that secures female solidarity and redemption. The novel even challenges the Enlightenment emphasis on travel and words as ways to knowledge acquisition, both of which are male prerogatives. Instead, the novel demonstrates how pictures, stories and music contribute to women’s improvement in knowledge. The Mystery of Udolpho qualifies the paradigm of female gothic because it feminizes the otherwise masculinist Enlightenment.