Gothic Literature

Gothic:- emotional extremes

- Dark themes

- Writers inspired by gothic architecture

- Found most of its natural settings in the gothic style: castles, mansions, often crumbling and ruined

1782 painting by Henry Fuseli, titled “The Nightmare”

History: - Gothic refers to a style of

architecture started in the middle ages.

- -Synonymous with the Middle Ages, chaotic, unenlightened, and superstitious.

- -Enjoyed a revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France

Beginnings of Gothic Literature- First Gothic novel: The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole,

1765.- Suspenseful, medieval, remote setting, supernatural- Highly imitated- Based on Gothic architecture and draw from previous

supernatural literature, such as Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Hamlet

Beginnings Continued…- Ann Radcliffe: The first great Gothic writer. - A Sicilian Romance (1790), Mysteries of

Udolpho (1794), and The Italian (1797).- Wrote The Italian as a response to Lewis’s

The Monk- Gave rise to division in Gothic literature:

“Terror Gothic” and “Horror Gothic”

Reasons- Industrial revolution

and political setting in the 18th and 19th Centuries made people afraid.

- Gives an opportunity to have an emotional outlet for fears

“Prse de la Bastille” (“Storming the Bastille”) by

Jean-Pierre Houël (1735-1813)

Gothic Fiction in the Nineteenth Century- The Contest: Byron, Percy Bysshe

Shelley, Mary Shelley and John William Polidori at the Villa Diodati on the banks of Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816.

- Birth of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and Polidori's The Vampyre (1819).

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus

- Written by Mary Shelly in 1818.

- Mary conceived an idea after she fell into a “waking dream” during which she saw "the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together."

- Theme of the dangers of science.

- Considered the first Sci-Fi novel, but written as a tale of terror.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula- Written in 1897- Didn’t invent the vampire, but

has been responsible for many interpretations of the vampire in the 20th and 21st centuries

Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Gothic Inspired Literature- Jane Eyre by

Charlotte Bronte- Wuthering Heights

by Emily Bronte- “Christabel,” by

Byron

Rise of the Ghost story- Ghosts are not as they are now,

usually passive, or scary only in appearance

- Modern ghost, driven by personal emotions

American Gothic- Poe:

The connection between Gothic fiction and detective fiction.

- Transformed Gothic into a psychological process. Relying on tone, mood, and setting.

- Wrote: “The Raven,” “Tell-Tale Heart,” etc.

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”

“The Raven” - Edgar Allen Poe

Gothic in the Twentieth Century and beyond- Modern Gothic: the

mass Gothic novel- Pattern:

- Innocent young heroin suspects her rich husband of crime.

- Dauphine Du Maurier’s Rebecca

Gothic Today

- Everything from Vampires to Monsters- Point more toward horror- Authors: Ann Rice, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Dean

Koontz, and Stephenie Meyer, etc. - Types: Urban Legends, Ghost Stories, Horror Novels,

Suspense and Horror Movies

Characteristics of Gothic Lit. - A castle, ruined or intact, haunted

or not- Ruined buildings, which are sinister- Dungeons, underground passages,

crypts, labyrinths, dark corridors, etc.

- Shadows, a flickering candle, or light failing

- Omens and ancestral curses- Magic, supernatural beings, or

suggestion of supernatural- A passion-driven, willful villain-hero,

or villain- A curious heroine with a tendency

to need rescuing- A hero with a hidden identity,

revealed at the end- Horrifying events or threat of

horrifying events.

Terror vs. HorrorTerror

- Intense, sharp, overmastering fear.

- Psychological.

Horror- an overwhelming and

painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear .

- Physical, more animal in nature.

How do they do it?- Setting: Dark and sinister- Mood/Tone: melancholy- Literary devices: relies heavily on

Imagery to make you feel and see what’s going on.

- Also use similes, metaphors, characters, etc.

The Plot Outline

Plot Character: direct the action. Usually a protagonist and antagonist,

as well as major and minor characters Setting: Where, when, it takes place Inciting Event: What starts the action Conflict: The problem Rising Action: Events leading to the climax Climax: The point of no return, the turning point Falling Action: Events that lead to the resolution Resolution: How the conflict is resolved for good or bad Theme: The message/purpose of the book.