Gothic literature

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Gothic literature
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The History

• Traced to early folklore
• 17th century workslike Macbethserved as
  precursors to the 18th and 19th century Gothic
  novel and drama
• Edmund Burkes A Philosophical Enquiry into the
  Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
  (1757)
• Gothic literature reflects the social and
  political climate of the time

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Its called Gothic because gothic-style
settingslike castles, mansions, and
monasteriesserved well as backdrops for such
dark literature.
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The run-down

• Genre deals with emotional extremes and very dark
  themes it examines our deepest, darkest
  fearsboth real and imaginary.

• Gothic lit often incorporates supernatural
  elements, demons, and apparitions.
• Meant to terrorize the readerbut also draw them
  in

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Common characteristics

• Victim is helpless against his torturer
• Torturer has immense power, sometimes
  supernatural
• Victim is often trapped by impenetrable
  wallsphysical or psychological
• Atmosphere of mystery, darkness, oppressiveness
• Mysterious disappearances and reappearances
• Melodramatically violent and psychologically
  abnormal

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Famous (to some) Authors

• Horace Walpole's novel The Castle of Otranto
  (1764) is considered to be the first gothic novel
• Perce Bysshe Shelley
• Mary ShelleyFrankenstein
• Edgar Allen Poe
• Bram StokerDracula

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Gothic Character Archetypes

• Tyrants
• Maniacs

• Persecuted Maidens
• Vampires
• Werewolves
• Monsters
• Ghosts
• Femmes Fatale
• Magicians

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• SoTo Kill a Mockingbird?

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Southern Gothic

• Developed out of the 19th Century Gothic novel
• Gothic lit examines a world different than our
  own the South held values and attributes not
  necessarily welcome in the rest of the country
  Southern Gothic
• It uses supernatural and unusual events not to
  terrorize, but to address social and class issues

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Characteristics

• Issues of race, alienation, and otherness are
  central to Southern Gothic
• Freakishness character is set aside by
  disability or viewpoint of the world
• Uses a spin on gothic archetypes
• Archetypes become American Southerners
• Monster becomes an uneducated drunk
• Use of the grotesque
• Characters negative qualities allows author to
  examine unsavory aspects of society
• Something in the town, house, or farm is bizarre
  and often falling apart

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• Violence
• often the result of racial or social tension
• Sense of place
• Southern Gothic settings feel Southern
• Old, run-down towns porches with rocking chairs,
  etc.
• Broken bodies and broken souls
• Problems created by social norm
• Questions establishments ethics and
  justification
• Morality is in question what is the innocents
  place in the world?
• Often asked to be the redeemer
• Purity of heart rarely overpowers desperation

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Famous Authors

• William Faulkner
• Tennessee Williams
• Flannery OConnor
• Eudora Welty
• Carson McCullers
• Truman Capote
• Harper Lee

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Sources

• http//www.enotes.com/gothic-literature/gothic-lit
  erature-an-overview
• http//www.scepticthomas.com/gothic/gothic.htm
• http//www.sfu.ca/english/Gillies/Engl20701/mockin
  gbird1.htm