1. Introductory Materials & Notes English 10 & 10-A Mrs. Humbertson
Gothic Literature AKA Dark Romanticism: Collection 1 - Ourselves & Others
Introductory Materials & Notes
English 10 & 10-A Mrs. Humbertson

2. OURSELVES & OTHERS Part One: Gothic Literature
“We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.”
This collection explores how we interact with people – family, enemies, neighbors, classmates – with whom we disagree & how we handle that tension.

3. A.
STARTER: Choose one of the quotes, copy it in your notebook, & discuss how it applies to one of your greatest fears. B. C.
Music:

4. What are our class’s top 10 fears?

5. Other Sources:

6. What happens to us when we feel fear?
Video:

7. When did Dark Romanticism become popular?
Later 18th Century Europe
Started with a “Gothic Revival” -- mid-1700s
Visible in gardens
Seen in architecture (gargoyles) of the Middle Ages
1740s - Horace Walpole - Strawberry Hill estate near London
Published The Castle of Otranto: a Gothic Story – 1764
Also included poetry & art

8. Application to Literature
Any kind of romantic or human interest aspect
Adds fear or terror
Popular among female writers
Became best sellers!

9. A Famous 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
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10. Famous American Gothic Writers
Edgar Allan Poe
Steven King

11. 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

12. More Characteristics
Presence of ghosts, spirits, vampires, and other supernatural entities
Mysterious disappearances and reappearances
Supernatural or paranormal occurrences

13. 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
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14. More Characteristics Blood, pain, death Cruelty Eroticism
Characters with “aberrant psychological states”
Events are “uncanny, macabre, or melodramatically violent bordering between reality and unreality

15. 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

16. Differentiating between them
Horror
“An awful apprehension”
Described distinctly
Something grotesque
So appalling, unrealistic
Depends on physical characteristics – you see what happens as opposed to imagining it
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”

17. Examples of Horrors & Thrillers
Horror Movies
“Saw”
“Nightmare on Elm Street”
“The Cabin in the Woods”
“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”
“The Conjuring”
Thrillers
“Silence of the Lambs”
“Seven”
“The Dark Knight”
“Shutter Island”
“The Machinist”
“The Shining”
“Jacob’s Ladder”

18. STOP NOTES

19. Why do people like horror stories and psychological thrillers?

20. Scary Stories

21. American Gothic
Important from the mid-18th Century through modern times
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

22. 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”

23. 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”