Gothic Literature Informaiton
Aspects of Gothic Literature
December 2012
Contents
Gothic elements in some pre-eighteenth century literature……………………….page 3
The Gothic in Literature of the 20th/21st Century……………………………………...page 6
Transgression and Excess………………………………………………………………………..page 9
Structure of Gothic Literature………………………………………………………………..page 11
GOTHIC ELEMENTS IN SOME PRE-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE
Horace Walpole The Castle of Otranto (1764)
21st century gothic style * Originate from a Germanic tribe * Came to describe ornate architecture – gloomy splendor * Gothic writing found in literature before the 18th century – Gothic is a recurring element of story telling * A permanent part of human experience * Comes from deep within the human psych * Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon) the monster Grendel – plays on the fear of the unknown * Gothic words * FEAR * CORRUPTION * FREEDOM * DARKNESS * GRAVEYARD * SPECTRE * IRRATIONAL * Gothic literature is full of oppositions – world of binaries, ambivalence – virtue vice, reason irrational, law and justice tyranny, light darkness, natural supernatural
KEY GOTHIC ELEMENTS * The Presence of some ‘supernatural’ * Monsters, demons etc. * Macabre and gloomily atmospheric * Church * Castles * Abbeys * Graveyards * Expressions and experiences of fear and terror * Characters with in the narrative itself – intra-fictional characters * Reader also experiences these feelings * Transgression and excess * Fred Botting – identifies two words that encapsulates central aspects of Gothic literature * Transgression – breaking of moral, ethical and conventional codes * Excess - Crossing boundaries of what is expected-sexual, moral, ethical
TEXTS
* Chaucer – Canterbury Tales 1400 * Marlowe- Doctor Faustus (1588) * Shakespeare – Macbeth (1605) * Milton - Paradise
December 2012
Contents
Gothic elements in some pre-eighteenth century literature……………………….page 3
The Gothic in Literature of the 20th/21st Century……………………………………...page 6
Transgression and Excess………………………………………………………………………..page 9
Structure of Gothic Literature………………………………………………………………..page 11
GOTHIC ELEMENTS IN SOME PRE-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE
Horace Walpole The Castle of Otranto (1764)
21st century gothic style * Originate from a Germanic tribe * Came to describe ornate architecture – gloomy splendor * Gothic writing found in literature before the 18th century – Gothic is a recurring element of story telling * A permanent part of human experience * Comes from deep within the human psych * Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon) the monster Grendel – plays on the fear of the unknown * Gothic words * FEAR * CORRUPTION * FREEDOM * DARKNESS * GRAVEYARD * SPECTRE * IRRATIONAL * Gothic literature is full of oppositions – world of binaries, ambivalence – virtue vice, reason irrational, law and justice tyranny, light darkness, natural supernatural
KEY GOTHIC ELEMENTS * The Presence of some ‘supernatural’ * Monsters, demons etc. * Macabre and gloomily atmospheric * Church * Castles * Abbeys * Graveyards * Expressions and experiences of fear and terror * Characters with in the narrative itself – intra-fictional characters * Reader also experiences these feelings * Transgression and excess * Fred Botting – identifies two words that encapsulates central aspects of Gothic literature * Transgression – breaking of moral, ethical and conventional codes * Excess - Crossing boundaries of what is expected-sexual, moral, ethical
TEXTS
* Chaucer – Canterbury Tales 1400 * Marlowe- Doctor Faustus (1588) * Shakespeare – Macbeth (1605) * Milton - Paradise