What is Gothic Literature A genre of late18thcentury literature that featured brooding mysterious settings and plots and set the stage for what we now call horror stories Horace Walpoles ID: 650080
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The Gothic Period1764-1840Slide2
What is Gothic LiteratureA genre of late-18th-century literature that featured brooding, mysterious settings and plots and set the stage for what we now call “horror stories.”
Horace Walpole’s
Castle of Otranto,
set inside a medieval castle, was the first major Gothic novel.Slide3
What is Gothic LiteratureGenerally Combines horror and romance – yes, an odd combination.
Later, the term “Gothic” grew to include any work that attempted to create an atmosphere of terror or the unknown, such as Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories.Slide4
Writers’ Motivation Writers like Poe and Hawthorne responded to the optimistic vision of the romantics with a darker vision.
The industrial revolution brought ideas that the "old ways" of doing things are now irrelevant and out of this came the exploration of the supernatural, being at the mercy of forces beyond human control, and the nature of good and evil. It is out of the gothic writers that the contemporary genre of horror springs. Slide5
CharacteristicsOverall feeling of darknessHorror stories or ghost
stories
Supernatural - apparitions, phantoms, demons, and necromancers
An atmosphere of brooding gloomSlide6
SettingThe setting of the Gothic Novel is a character in itself. The plot is usually set in a castle, an abbey, a monastery, or some other, usually religious edifice, and it is acknowledged that this building has secrets of its own. It is this gloomy and frightening scenery, which sets the scene for what the audience should expect.Slide7
SettingIncludes wild and desolate landscapes, ancient buildings such as ruined monasteries, cathedrals, castles with dungeons, torture chambers, secret doors, and winding stairwaysSlide8
Did you ever think of Scooby Doo as Gothic LitSlide9
CharactersCharacters - youthful, handsome heroes and fainting heroines
Female
characters are threatened by powerful or impetuous male figuresSlide10
ArchetypesVirginal maiden
Old fool
Hero
Tyrant
Stupid ServantSlide11
ArchetypesVirginal Maiden – young, beautiful, pure, innocent, kind, virtuous. Shows these virtues by fainting and crying whenever her delicate sensibilities are challenged, usually starts out with a mysterious past and it is later revealed that she is the daughter of an aristocratic or noble family.Slide12
ArchetypesThe Stupid Servant and Clowns – act as comic relief by asking seemingly stupid questions, transitions between scenes, brings news, messenger, moves plot forwardSlide13
Gothic ArtSlide14
Famous Gothic AuthorsMary Shelly and Frankenstein
Edgar Allen Poe and…all his stuff
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Emily Bronte and
Wuthering Heights
Charlotte Bronte and
Jane EyreSlide15
Urban Gothic AuthorsRobert Louis Stevenson and The Strange Case of
Dr
Jekyll and
Mr
Hyde
Oscar Wilde and
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Bram Stoker and
Dracula
Gaston
Leroux
and
The Phantom
of the OperaSlide16
Uplifting huh?