This document discusses the characteristics and history of Gothic literature. It began as a literary genre in the late 18th century inspired by Gothic architecture. Notable Gothic writers include Ann Radcliffe, the Brontë sisters, Edgar Allan Poe, and Stephen King. Gothic literature is typically set in dark, isolated places and involves supernatural elements like ghosts and vampires. It aims to evoke a sense of terror in readers by creating an atmosphere of gloom and uncertainty that blurs the lines between reality and imagination. The genre has influenced American, Southern, and cyber Gothic literature in later periods.

1. 1
Characteristics
of
Gothic Literature

2. When did it become popular?
• Later 18th Century
• Started with a “Gothic
Revival” -- mid-1700’s
• Visible in gardens
• Seen in architecture
(gargoyles) of the
Middle Ages
• 1740’s - Horace Walpole
- Strawberry Hill estate
near London
• Published The Castle of
Otranto: a Gothic Story -
1764
http://www.puzzlehistory.com/gothgrdn.jpg

3. Application to literature
• Any kind of
romantic, scary
novel
• Came from
Germany in the late
1700’s - early
1800’s
• Popular among
female writers
• Became best
http://www.greatscotland.be/evenementen.htm

4. Famous Gothic Writers
• Ann Radcliffe - The Mysteries
of Udolpho
• Jane Austen -- Northanger
Abbey (parody of Gothic
novels)
• Charlotte Bronte -- Jane Eyre
• Emily Bronte -- Wuthering
Heights
• Shirley Jackson, Daphne du
Maurier, Barbara Michaels,
Anne Rice

5. A classic
• Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein (1818)
• Single most important
product of this tradition
• Themes relate to
science, poetry,
psychology, alienation,
politics, education,
family relationships, etc.
• Tradition: 8-foot tall
monster made of
separate body pieces
librarycommission.lib.wv.us/ WVLC%20BOOK/Frank...

6. Influence felt elsewhere
• Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Coleridge-- skeleton ship
and the crew’s reaction
• Christabel by Coleridge--
atmosphere, setting, and
fragmentary plot of
seduction and witchery
• Manfred by Byron -- initial
scene
• The Even of St. Agnes by
Keats -- setting
http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/images2/ancient_mar
iner4.jpg

7. Famous Gothic Writers - cont’d.
• Edgar Allen Poe
• Steven King
http://www.3boysproductions.com/MIFF-
2002-Fri-Nite-Program.htm
http://www.1001-
votes.com/vote/fond.php?mcat=24&lg=fr

8. Characteristics
• Set in Medieval times
• Dark, mysterious, evil
tone
• Dark castles, palaces,
chambers, haunted
mansions
• Isolated setting
• All come together to
emphasize the sense of
evil
http://www.encounterspri.com/Articles.htm

9. More characteristics
• Presence of ghosts,
spirits, vampires, and
other supernatural
entities
• Mysterious
disappearances and
reappearances
• Supernatural or
paranormal
occurrences http://www.penelopesweb.com/gargoyles.html

10. Characteristics -- cont’d.
• Religion, usually
Christianity or at
least spirituality, is
confronted.
• A gothic “double” is
used in which a
character who
seems to be good is
linked with another
who is evil www.pagedepot.com/.../ GOTHIC%20CHAPBOOKSX.HTM

11. More characteristics
• Blood, pain, death
• Cruelty
• Eroticism
• Characters with
“aberrant psychological
states”
• Events are “uncanny,
macabre, or
melodramatically
violent bordering
between reality and
unreality
http://www.pantip.com/cafe/chalermthai/newmovie/
hauntedcastle/hc.html

12. Purpose
• To evoke “terror”
versus “horror” in the
reader because of
situations bordering
reality/unreality
•Often used to teach a
message
• May lack a Medieval
setting but will develop
an atmosphere of
gloom and terror

13. Differentiating between the two
• Horror
•“An awful
apprehension”
•Described distinctly
•Something grotesque
•So appalling,
unrealistic
•Depends on physical
characteristics
• Terror
• “A sickening realization”
• Suggestive of what will
happen
• Depends on reader’s
imagination
• Sense of uncertainty
• Creates an “intangible
atmosphere of spiritual
psychic dread”

14. American Gothic
• Important from the mid-18th
Century on
• Related to “Romantic Period”
• Criticizes “national myth of new-
world innocence by voicing the
cultural contradictions that
undermine the nation’s claim to
purity and equality” - Teresa A.
Goddu
•Tells of historical horrors that make
national identity http://photos1.blogger.com/img/154/1420/1024/american
%20gothic.jpg

15. Southern Gothic
• Customary setting because it’s the source of values not
necessarily welcome in the rest of the country
• Poe was the first Southern gothic writer
• Common themes: race, alienation, sense of “otherness”
http://www.madelinecarolgallery.c
om/images/Southern
%20Plantation.jpg

16. Cyber gothic
literature
• Situations seem unrealistic
during this time period but
possible in the future
• Dark setting
• Nothing natural; all man-made
• Characters’ bodies are often
altered, making them less
human-like
• Based on knowledge and a
“technologically enhanced
future” http://darklands.ivory-tower.net/index.php?
module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=17&meid=-1

17. Sources of text
• http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~mdward/essay2.html
• http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/romatic/topic_2/welc
• www.mchs.net/.../ldunnreier2/ldunnreier2/.../Gothi...
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