American Gothic by Grant Wood

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American Gothic by Grant Wood
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Though in many of its aspects this visible world
seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were
formed in fright.Herman Melville (in Moby Dick)
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What is Gothic?

• The name gothic actually comes from the
  architectural style of the Middle Ages. The
  irregular style, lack of symmetry, grotesque
  gargoyles and angular shapes are characteristics
  of this type of architecture.

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Gothic Grew Out of

• The gothic grew out of
  Romanticism, which was a
  response to the Rationalist
  Movement.
• As the romantics felt free
  from logic, they were free
  to explore imagination, including the darkest
  side of it.
• In a way, you could say the original romantics
  explored beautiful dreams, whereas the gothic
  writers explored nightmares.

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Romanticism Emphasizes

• the beauty and purity of nature
• emotion over reason
• belief in the natural goodness of man
• belief that nature and simplicity purity
• cities and sophistication corruption
• belief in The 5 Is- Imagination, Intuition,
  Innocence, Inner Experience, and Inspiration from
  nature/supernatural

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The Dark Romantics

• When romantics saw individualism, they saw
  hope, vitality, a new way!
• Gothic writers looked at the individual, and saw
  the potential for evil they saw darkness.

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Beauty and Horror

• While romantics were looking at the beauty of
  nature gothic writers were envisioning the dark
  and scary forests and all the horrors, natural
  and supernatural, hidden within.

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The Masters

• By the 19th century, gothic elements had taken
  over the work of Edgar Allan Poe (considered the
  American master of the genre), Nathaniel
  Hawthorne (who had ties to the Salem witch
  trials), Washington Irving (The Legend of Sleepy
  Hollow) and, in a more subtle way, Hermann
  Melville (Moby Dick). Gothic elements are also
  noticeable in Emily Dickinsons poetry.
• The gothic tradition continued in the 20th
  century with authors like William Faulkner,
  Flannery OConnor.

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Authors Distincitve Approaches

• As one can glean from the painting American
  Gothic, the horror of the mystery, horror, even
  terror of the genre is often subtly conveyed.
• Authors have applied unique styles to crafting
  gothic literature and conveying what really is
  horrific.
• Hawthorne is different from Poe, for instance.
  Whereas Poe focused on the darkness of the mind,
  Hawthorne focused on the darkness of the soul and
  the human heart vanity, betrayal, mistrust,
  hatred, etc.

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Lets Consider

• Life in Salemhard to relate
• Life in Victorian erahard to relate in some
  ways
• Outlook
• Art/Values
• For example

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How Life Imitates Art
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Inheritance

• The power of the gothic tradition hasn't really
  waned in all these years.
• Anne Rice's 1973 novel 'Interview with the
  vampire' and particularly its film adaptation
  (1994) revitalized the genre for newer
  generations.

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Inheritance

• Today, we have Stephanie Meyer's glittery high
  school vampires, the works of Neil Gaiman
  (Coraline) and the films of Tim Burton (Sleepy
  Hollow, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The
  Corpse Bride), all feeding from a strong literary
  tradition.
• As life imitates art, we have social groups
  derived from this art form the Goths (the kids
  with eyeliner, not the East Germanic tribe).

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• What scares YOU?