Gothic Fiction is a sub-genre of Prose, born from Romanticism that became popular in the Eighteenth Century.
‘Gothic’ originates from teh ancient, barbaric Germanic tribe, the Goths, who contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. Gothic architecture was named after them as an insult.
Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, is attributed as the first gothic novel, mainly due to its Gothic architecture.
There is no defining definition of Gothic Literature, but this one serves quite well:
Gothic texts are, overtly but ambiguously, not rational, depicting disturbances of sanity and security, from superstitious belief in ghosts and demons, displays of uncontrolled passion, violent emotion or flights of fancy to portrayals of perversion and obsession. Moreover, if knowledge is associated with rational procedures of enquiry and understanding based on natural, empirical reality, then gothic styles disturb the borders of knowing and conjure up obscure otherworldly phenomena or the ‘dark arts’, alchemical, arcane and occult forms normally characterised as delusion, apparition, deception. Not tied to a natural order of things as defined by realism, gothic flights of imagination suggest supernatural possibility, mystery, magic, wonder and monstrosity. Gothic texts are not good in moral, aesthetic or social terms. Their concern is with vice: protagonists are selfish or evil; adventures involve decadence or crime. Their effects, aesthetically and socially, are also replete with a range of negative features: not beautiful, they display no harmony or proportion. Ill-formed, obscure, ugly, gloomy and utterly antipathetic to effects of love, admiration or gentle delight, gothic texts register revulsion, abhorrence, fear, disgust and terror.’
Fred Botting, Gothic: Second Edition (2014)
Gothic Fiction texts deal with some or most of the elements above and merge with other genres. Much celebrated Romance texts like Wuthering Heights are classed as Gothic Fiction.
It was a counter-culture to what dominated literature at the time.
When we read, we get a sense of foreboding.
Settings
- old, rundown buildings like castles and mansions
- hidden passages, trap doors, dungeons, secret rooms.
- Bleak Environments
- dark forests, mountanous, isolated, and usually bad weather.
- Shadows, flickering candles, darkness.
The Supernatural
- a key element to gothic literature
- it is evoked directly or indirectly.
- it is a tool to build suspense
- often includes omens, curses, magic, manifestations or the uncanny.
Emotions
- high emotions triggered by terrible events
- characters are passionate, strong willed, defy others. Men storm and rage. Women faint.
- A focus on emotional response, rather than rational response.
Science
- some invovle science as a key component. Contextually, thre was a fear that science would replace God.
Motifs
- strange places
- transition or change
- power and powerlessness
- uncertainty
- the uncanny
Tropes
The uncanny The doppelganger or two split - investigate the right word.