1. Gothic Literature

2. Gothic: - emotional extremes - Dark themes
- Writers inspired by gothic architecture
- Found most of its natural settings in the gothic style: castles, mansions, often crumbling and ruined
1782 painting by Henry Fuseli, titled “The Nightmare”

3. History:
Gothic refers to a style of architecture started in the middle ages.
-Synonymous with the Middle Ages, chaotic, unenlightened, and superstitious.
-Enjoyed a revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France

4. Beginnings of Gothic Literature
First Gothic novel: The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole, 1765.
Suspenseful, medieval, remote setting, supernatural
Highly imitated
Based on Gothic architecture and draw from previous supernatural literature, such as Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Hamlet

5. Beginnings Continued…
- Ann Radcliffe: The first great Gothic writer.
A Sicilian Romance (1790), Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), and The Italian (1797).
Wrote The Italian as a response to Lewis’s The Monk
Gave rise to division in Gothic literature: “Terror Gothic” and “Horror Gothic”

6. Reasons
Industrial revolution and political setting in the 18th and 19th Centuries made people afraid.
Gives an opportunity to have an emotional outlet for fears
“Prse de la Bastille” (“Storming the Bastille”) by Jean-Pierre Houël ( )

7. Gothic Fiction in the Nineteenth Century
The Contest: Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and John William Polidori at the Villa Diodati on the banks of Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816.
Birth of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and Polidori's The Vampyre (1819).

8. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
Written by Mary Shelly in 1818.
Mary conceived an idea after she fell into a “waking dream” during which she saw "the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together."
Theme of the dangers of science.
Considered the first Sci-Fi novel, but written as a tale of terror.

9. Bram Stoker’s Dracula Written in 1897
Didn’t invent the vampire, but has been responsible for many interpretations of the vampire in the 20th and 21st centuries
Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

10. Gothic Inspired Literature
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
“Christabel,” by Byron

11. Rise of the Ghost story
Ghosts are not as they are now, usually passive, or scary only in appearance
Modern ghost, driven by personal emotions

12. American Gothic
- Poe:
The connection between Gothic fiction and detective fiction.
Transformed Gothic into a psychological process. Relying on tone, mood, and setting.
Wrote: “The Raven,” “Tell-Tale Heart,” etc.
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
“The Raven” - Edgar Allen Poe

13. Gothic in the Twentieth Century and beyond
Modern Gothic: the mass Gothic novel
Pattern:
Innocent young heroin suspects her rich husband of crime.
Dauphine Du Maurier’s Rebecca

14. Gothic Today Everything from Vampires to Monsters
Point more toward horror
Authors: Ann Rice, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Stephenie Meyer, etc.
Types: Urban Legends, Ghost Stories, Horror Novels, Suspense and Horror Movies

15. Characteristics of Gothic Lit.
A castle, ruined or intact, haunted or not
Ruined buildings, which are sinister
Dungeons, underground passages, crypts, labyrinths, dark corridors, etc.
Shadows, a flickering candle, or light failing
Omens and ancestral curses
Magic, supernatural beings, or suggestion of supernatural
A passion-driven, willful villain-hero, or villain
A curious heroine with a tendency to need rescuing
A hero with a hidden identity, revealed at the end
Horrifying events or threat of horrifying events.

16. Terror vs. Horror Terror Intense, sharp, overmastering fear.
Psychological.
Horror
an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear .
Physical, more animal in nature.

17. How do they do it? Setting: Dark and sinister Mood/Tone: melancholy
Literary devices: relies heavily on Imagery to make you feel and see what’s going on.
Also use similes, metaphors, characters, etc.

18. The Plot Outline

19. Plot
Character: direct the action. Usually a protagonist and antagonist, as well as major and minor characters
Setting: Where, when, it takes place
Inciting Event: What starts the action
Conflict: The problem
Rising Action: Events leading to the climax
Climax: The point of no return, the turning point
Falling Action: Events that lead to the resolution
Resolution: How the conflict is resolved for good or bad
Theme: The message/purpose of the book.