Gothic Fiction

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Gothic Fiction

• Enter at your peril!

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Definition

• A non-realistic writing style, which came to
  prominence in the 1760s continues to the
  present day.
• It is referred to as a mode or style of writing

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Gothic Context

• The gothic was first used as a Medieval,
  architectural term to describe a style of
  building that included gargoyles, scenes of Hell,
  and souls in torment.

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Examples of Gothic Architecture

• Notre Dame Cathedral
• St. Etienne
• Westminster Abbey
• Are all examples of Gothic Architecture
• The term was generally meant as an insult. It is
  a reference to the Goth and Visigoth invaders,
  who were looked upon as barbarians.

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The Early Gothic

• Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto (1764) is
  generally considered the first full-fledged
  Gothic novel.

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• The classic Gothic novels were written by Matthew
  Lewis, Jane Austen, and Ann Radcliffe in the
  1790s.

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Radcliffe creates the formula for the classic
Gothic novel in The Mysteries of Udolpho.

• In general, the Radcliffian Gothic incorporates
  an innocent that is imperiled by his/her own
  innocence.
• A guardian/protector figure, who must rescue the
  innocent from unmentionable evil. The irony of
  the Radcliffian Gothic is that it is the naiveté
  of the innocent that puts the innocent at risk in
  the first place.
• Critics, like Kate Ferguson Ellis, have argued
  that the Gothic mode of writing replays the felix
  culpa or fortunate fall.

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Contemporary Writers

• twenty-first century Gothic artists include Anne
  Rice, Stephen King, Angela Carter and Patrick
  McGrath.

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The Gothic may be described using the following
characteristics

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Degeneration, Darkness, and Decay
As a rule, gothic literature is generally set in
darkened scenes of degeneration and
decay. Popular settings include decaying houses,
crumbling castles, ancient abbeys, antiquated
priories, and moldering manor houses. Gothic
settings use physical descriptions of
degeneration to emphasize moral, spiritual,
cultural, and or psychological decay. Setting
can thus be said to be symptomatic of social
entropy.
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There is an emphasis on the psychology of
the characters rather than plot. Things do not
always make sense logically in gothic texts.
Psychology
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There is an emphasis placed upon extreme
emotional situations.
The Gothic goes to extremes.
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Use of the supernatural
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Use of the doppelganger theme
Doppelganger is a word that comes to us from the
German. It means living double. The doubling
of animate and inanimate objects is a major motif
found in gothic literature. These mirror images
often show a split between the characters public
and private self.
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Use of an unreliable narrator
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Dark, pessimistic view of existence
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Change
There is a general emphasis on metamorphosis and
transformation this may manifest itself as a
physical or psychological change or both.
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American v European Gothic

• The American gothic is different from the
  European gothic for 3 reasons
• Americas lack of historical breadth (theres
  less loss history to be found).
• Protestant foundation
• No abandoned/crumbling castles, monasteries,
  priories, abbeys, etc.

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Poe and the Gothic

• Edgar Allan Poe invents the American Gothic.
• In creating the modern horror story, Edgar Allan
  Poe redefines the gothic. Poes gothic is
  distinctly American in taste and setting.

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Southern Northern Gothic
Within the American Gothic, there are two
distinct movements that are tied to geography
the Northern Gothic and the Southern
Gothic. Both express a fear of social entropy.
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Henry James (1843-1916)

• Born into a family of wealthy intellectuals
• His father, Henry James, Sr., was a leading
  intellectual of his day, who was friends with
  Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and
  Nathaniel Hawthorne.
• His brother William James was a pioneer in the
  field of psychology.

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James Background

• James was interested in literature, philosophy
  and psychology.
• He wrote 112 short stories, 20 novels, 12 plays,
  numerous essays, and literary criticisms.
• His writing is heavily influenced by Charles
  Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the French
  writer Balzac.

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Jamess Literary Style

• James is generally classified as a Realist
  writer.
• In TOTS, he deliberately sets out to write a
  Romantic text.
• While there are strong Gothic/Romantic elements
  in TOTS, James strives to convey his story as
  realistically and pragmatically as he can.
• James is concerned primarily with the
  psychological effect his writing has on his
  audience.

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The Turn of the Screw

• In 1908 he James wrote that Peter Quint and
  Miss Jessel are not "ghosts" at all, as we now
  know the ghost, but goblins, elves, imps, demons
  as loosely constructed as those of the old trials
  for whichcraft sic if not, more pleasingly,
  fairies of the legendary order, wooing their
  victims forth to see them dance under the moon."
  
• www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hjames.htm