What Is Gothic Literature?

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Today, we're trying something different. Instead of giving you a list of ten books to read, we're going to learn ten things about gothic literature. I have a literature degree, and I'm not afraid to use it.

All About Gothic Literature

1. WHAT IS GOTHIC LITERATURE?

It's a genre of literature that emerged in 1700s Britain as a reaction against Enlightenment rationality. The writer's goal is to provoke fear in the reader.

The term "gothic" refers to medieval architecture. Gothic stories are often set in medieval-era buildings.

2. WHAT THE HECK IS "ENLIGHTENMENT RATIONALITY?"

It's the belief that scientific inquiry is the best method of building knowledge and improving life for humans. It encourages people to question tradition, superstition, religion, and authority. Instead of relying on divine revelation or superstition, humans should use their intellect to test the world and make decisions.

3. WHY DID PEOPLE NEED "A REACTION AGAINST ENLIGHTENMENT RATIONALITY?"

Because rational people are boring, Brenda.

Because focusing only on our intellect can cause us to abandon other parts of ourselves. Our imaginations, ethics, emotions, and cultural traditions are important parts of the human experience, even if they're not always rational.

"Not rational" is a great way to describe gothic literature.

4. WHAT ELSE INSPIRED THE BIRTH OF GOTHIC LITERATURE?

• Curiosity about the medieval period. People in 1700-1800s Britain had a fascination with medieval history. Lots of fiction published during that time was set in the Middle Ages.
• The plays of William Shakespeare. Many of Shakespeare's plays are set in medieval castles and involve supernatural elements and highly emotional characters.
• Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton. Milton sparked our undying love for tragic anti-heroes.
• Eloisa To Abelard (1717) by Alexander Pope. An excessively gloomy and extremely popular poem about lovers who are kept apart by their religious obligations.
• Graveyard Poets. In the 1700s, it was popular to write bleak poems about graveyards. These poems tended to get terrible reviews from critics. (I agree with the critics.)
• A Philosophical Enquiry Into The Origin Of Our Ideas Of The Sublime And Beautiful (1757) by Edmund Burke. This is a philosophy thing. Philosophy things confuse me deeply. I think this is the relevant part: The Beautiful is anything that is well-formed and aesthetically pleasing. The Sublime is anything that has the power to compel or destroy us. Gothic writers play with these ideas in their work.
• Political unease. The English Civil War was long and traumatizing. Spooky stories are a way for society to explore its feelings about scary events.

5. WHAT WAS THE FIRST GOTHIC NOVEL?

The first popular gothic novel was The Castle Of Otranto by Horace Walpole, which was published in 1764. The plot of The Castle Of Otranto is wild. Conrad, the heir to the castle, is squished to death by a giant helmet on his wedding day. (Don't ask questions. The book won't answer them.) Conrad's death puts his father, Manfred, in a bit of a pickle. He wants an heir to inherit his castle. Now he doesn't have one. To solve this quandary, Manfred decides to marry his son's betrothed, Isabella. For obvious reasons, Isabella objects to Manfred's plan. Then the supernatural gets involved.

6. OTHER WORKS THAT BUILT THE GENRE

• Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley
• The Woman In White (1859) by Wilkie Collins
• The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Picture Of Dorian Gray (1890) by Oscar Wilde
• Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker
• The Turn Of The Screw (1898) by Henry James
• Most things by Edgar Allan Poe

7. HOW TO IDENTIFY A GOTHIC NOVEL IN THE WILD

• Atmosphere: Dark, unpredictable, suspenseful, mysterious, claustrophobic.
• Characters: Supernatural creatures, women who swoon, overbearing men, mysterious strangers, highly emotional people who make dubious decisions.
• Setting: Isolated wilderness locations, old buildings, cemeteries, medieval ruins, tunnels, places with macabre history.
• Plot Elements: Prophecies, curses, magic, events that don't make sense, plot twists, murder.
• Themes: Trauma, madness, distress, isolation, oppression, evil temptations, secrets, vengeance, death, religion, history.

8. COMMON MOTIFS (OR TROPES)

• OMG, the melodrama: Gothic characters experience extreme versions of their emotions. Their love, anger, sadness, terror, etc. are all-consuming and often lead to madness, obsession, or death.
• Good vs evil: The hero must battle an evil, unnatural force.
• Gothic revival architecture: Horror writers in the 1700-1800s thought the medieval period was a scary time. Probably because of the harsh laws and old religious rituals. Haunted medieval ruins became popular settings for ghost stories.
• The setting is a metaphor: The decaying setting is a representation of the characters' mental state.
• The monsters are a metaphor: The supernatural creatures are a representation of abstract fears. For example, a vengeful ghost could represent the fear of a buried secret being exposed.
• The past intruding on the present (how rude): The characters are trying to move past a traumatic event, but reminders of the past are everywhere.
• Terrifying supernatural events (again, how rude): Maybe the world isn't always rational.
• Convoluted plots: There's a lot going on in a gothic novel. Will we get an explanation of everything? Of course not.
• Unhappily ever after. It's a horror novel. Not everybody is going to make it out alive.

9. MAJOR SUBGENRES & OFFSHOOTS OF GOTHIC LITERATURE

• Female gothic: Focuses on female characters and how they fit into male-dominated society or the domestic sphere.
• Modern gothic: Uses gothic elements to examine modern fears, such as the fear of AI.
• Southern gothic: Set in the American South. It usually explores themes of racism, poverty, and history.
• Urban gothic: Set in cities. It usually explores themes of crime and social class.
• Victorian literature: The Victorians loved spooky stuff and borrowed heavily from gothic literature. Victorian literature often has gothic elements, even if the book doesn't completely fit into the gothic genre.

10. I WANT TO READ MORE ABOUT GOTHIC LITERATURE

New York Public Library Blog

Wikipedia

Britannica

Central Michigan University

Thank you for letting me show off my Brit lit degree. It was expensive and mostly useless, but I love it very much.