The Gothic A presentation

The Goths Heterogeneous East Germanic tribe around during the early few 100s Participated in the sacking of Rome Possibility of Swedish origin

Romanesque Preceded the Gothic movement. Impacted Catholic Europe around 12c. An anti-classical style, primary colours, stained glass popular. Mainly biblical and pictorial Angoulême’s 12th Century Romanesque Cathedral Lisbon Cathedral Tournai Cathedral, Belgium

Reims Cathedral Façade Gothic Architecture Was known as “the French style” 12c-16c. Gothic art emanated from medieval ‘barbaric’ style Features: the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. Reims Cathedral Façade

TiNGZ Themes Key Features Stock Characters Dogs, cats, toads, bats, shrimps Moon - werewolves Blood – red/black Vessels – familiars Witches - occult Castles – cold flagstones Thresholds; pointed arches, windows Daggers – murder-fever Fire (places) – safe places Terror and the Sublime Pathetic Fallacy - storms Mystery and tension (opposites) Death, violence and ill-will Distortions of nature Excess of passions; melodrama Confinement and transgression Supernatural! Revenants, dreams, curses Foiling and doubles Religion and sin Macabre and gruesome Personified setting Monsters/madness Subplots Stock Characters Themes Tyrants, villains/bandits, maniacs, Byronic Heroes, persecuted maidens, femmes fatales, monks/nuns, magicians, vampires, demons, (fallen) angels, revenants, skeletons, The Wandering Jew, the Devil !

Famous Literary Texts Ann Radcliff's ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’, 1794, is the quintessential Gothic Romance. Much of her style, however, was a bit like Scooby Doo and had ‘“proper”’ heroines ‘The Castle of Otranto’ by Horace Walpole in 1764 is regarded as the first Gothic Novel. Melodrama, parody and terror Dracula 1897; Bram Stoker Frankenstein 1818; Mary Shelley

Horror/Terror/Sublime Horror is more gratuitous and explicit, making you feel queasy and/or freeze Terror is more an anticipation of what is to come and sets the mind’s faculties at work at high tension Gothic works inhabit the latter They also talk about the sublime, linked with the ‘passion of fear’ According to Kant, objects may create a fearfulness without being scary themselves This highlights the importance of symbolism and mystique to the Gothic genre