1. Subgenre of Romanticism 1800-1860
Gothic Literature
Subgenre of Romanticism

2. What’s gothic now?
In your composition books, consider the question, “What is Gothic now?”
Brainstorm TV Shows, Movies, Books, Music, etc. that you believe embody Gothic Characteristics.

3. The Beginnings…
Gothic Literary tradition came to be in part from the Gothic architecture of the Middle Ages.
Gothic cathedrals with irregularly placed towers, and high stained-glass windows were intended to inspire awe and fear in religious worshipers.

4. Gothic Architecture Reims Cathedral, France Milan Cathedral, Italy
Cologne Cathedral, Germany

5. Gargoyles—carvings of small deformed creatures squatting at the corners and crevices of Gothic cathedrals—were supposed to ward off evil spirits, but they often look more like demonic spirits themselves.
Think of the gargoyle as a mascot of Gothic, and you will get an idea of the kind of imaginative distortion of reality that Gothic represents.
-Think The Hunchback of Notre Dame

6. Gothic Literature It is an offshoot of Romantic Literature.
The first Gothic Novel is The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole published in 1764.
Gothic Literature was the predecessor of modern horror movies in both theme and style.
Gothic Literature put a spin on the Romantic idea of nature worship and nature imagery. Along with nature having the power of healing, Gothic writers gave nature the power of destruction.
Frankenstein is full of the harsh reality of nature. Many storms arise in the novel, including storms the night the Creature comes to life.
The most common feature of Gothic Literature is the indication of mood through the weather.

7. Definition
The term Gothic novel broadly refers to stories that combine elements of horror and romanticism. The Gothic novel often deals with supernatural events, or events occurring in nature that cannot be easily explained or over which man has no control, and it typically follows a plot of suspense and mystery.

8. Romanticism v. gothic romanticism
Romantic writers celebrated the beauties of nature.
Gothic writers peered into the darkness of the supernatural.
Romanticism developed as a reaction against the rationalism of the Age of Reason.
The romantics freed the imagination from the hold of reason, so they could follow their imagination wherever it might lead.
For some Romantics, when they looked at the individual, they saw hope.
For some Romantic writers, the imagination led to the threshold of the unknown— the shadowy region where the fantastic, the demonic and the insane reside.
When the Gothic writers saw the individual, they saw the potential for evil.

9. Gothic Movement in America
The Gothic Tradition was firmly established in Europe before American writers had made names for themselves.
By the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and Herman Melville were using the Gothic elements in their writing.
Edgar Allan Poe was the master of the Gothic form in the United States.

10. CHARACTERISTICS
Gloomy, decaying setting (haunted houses or castles with secret passages, vaults, dungeons, trapdoors, and other mysterious architecture)
Supernatural beings or monsters (ghosts, vampires, zombies, giants)
Curses or prophecies
Damsels in distress
Heroes
Romance
Intense emotions
Blood, pain, death
Cruelty

11. MorE Characteristics
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.

12. EVEN More characteristics
Characters with “aberrant psychological states”
Events are uncanny or melodramatically violent bordering between reality and unreality

13. Purpose
To evoke “terror” versus “horror” in the reader because of situations bordering reality/unreality.
Often used to teach a message or make a social commentary.

14. Which do you think is easier to achieve as a writer?
TERROR V. HORROR
TERROR
HORROR
Terror is the feeling of dread and apprehension at the possibility of something frightening.
Terror is the sounds of unknown creatures scratching at the door.
Terror is the feeling a stranger may be hiding behind the door.
Horror is the shock and repulsion of seeing the frightening thing.
Horror is seeing your roommate eaten alive by giant rats.
Horror is the squirt of blood as the stranger’s knife sinks in.
Which do you think is easier to achieve as a writer?

15. Terror vs. Horror Horror is easier to achieve than Terror.
Works that bypass terror and rely on non-stop gore and shocks are often dismissed as “cheap thrills.”
The loudest scream a horror film gets is the moment when, out of the blue, the killer leaps into the frame with a startling howl. It shocks you, but the shock is ephemeral. It does not stay with you, lingering in your mind like a proper moment of terror.

16. Gothic Conventions Murder Death Suicide Ghosts Demons Gloomy settings
Family secrets
Dungeons
Curses
Torture
Vampires
Spirits
Castles
Tombs
Terror
Damsel in distress (frequently faints in horror)
Secret corridors, passageways, or rooms
Ancestral curses
Ruined castles with graveyards nearby
Priests and monks
Sleep, dream, death-like states

17. Metonymy of gloom and terror
Metonymy is a subtype of metaphor, in which something (like rain) is used to stand for something else (like sorrow).
For example, the film industry likes to use metonymy as a quick shorthand, so we often notice that it is raining in funeral scenes.

18. Note the following metonymies that suggest mystery, danger, or the supernatural
wind, especially howling
sighs, moans, howls, eerie sounds
rain, especially blowing
clanking chains
doors grating on rusty hinges
gusts of wind blowing out lights
footsteps approaching
doors suddenly slamming shut
lights in abandoned rooms
crazed laughter
characters trapped in a room
baying of distant dogs (or wolves?)
ruins of buildings
thunder and lightning

19. Importance of Setting
The setting is greatly influential in Gothic novels. It not only evokes the atmosphere of horror and dread, but also portrays the deterioration of its world.
The decaying, ruined scenery implies that at one time there was a thriving world. At one time the abbey, castle, or landscape was something treasured and appreciated. Now, all that lasts is the decaying shell of a once thriving dwelling.
May lack a Medieval setting but will develop an atmosphere of gloom and terror.

20. Basic Plot components in a Gothic Novel
Action in the Gothic novel tends to take place at night, or at least in a claustrophobic, sunless environment.
Ascent (up a mountain high staircase);
Descent (into a dungeon, cave, underground chambers or labyrinth) or falling off a precipice; secret passage; hidden doors; etc.
Physical decay, skulls, cemeteries, and other images of death; ghosts; revenge; family curse; blood and gore; torture; the Doppelganger (evil twin or double), etc.