Gothic Fiction

Castle of Otranto; Horace Walpole

1764

A Sicilian Romance; Ann Radcliffe

1790

The Monk; Matthew Lewis

1796

Frankenstein; Mary Shelley

1818

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Robert Louis Stevenson

1886

Dracula; Bram Stoker

1897

The Hound of the Baskervilles; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

1902

The Hunter; Julia Leigh

1999

The Imp of the Perverse; Edgar Allen Poe

1845

The Fall of the House of Usher; Edgar Allen Poe

1839

The Black Cat; Edgar Allen Poe

1843

The Sublime

A technique concerned with extreme environments and the vulnerability of individual forces beyond rational understanding or control. These extreme environments are constructed to thrill the audience with awe and terror, heightening their engagement with the text. Ann Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Romance employs this technique through her construction of the environment, ensuring that elements of obscurity lead to terror and anxiety within her characters and the reader themselves.

The Found Manuscript

A narrative device where the text is presented as a found document — a diary, letter, or ancient text now translated — to create a sense of authenticity and distance between the reader and the events described. Horace Walpole employed this technique in his novel Castle of Otranto (1764) in order to distance his authorship from the narrative and establish a sense of authenticity. This way, he was able to entice readers, who were used to the realist genre established in the Enlightenment period, into reading Gothic fiction.

The ‘Gothic Double’

Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) employs the _____ throughout its narrative. The technique explores the dual nature of humanity and late-Victorian ideas about the brain as a ‘double organ’ — specifically referencing how the left and right hemispheres could function independently with the left as logical and the right as emotional. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the technique is employed in order to solicit an uncanny feeling in the reader, collapsing into terror as the intelligent, modern Dr. Jekyll regresses to the sadistic, primitive Mr. Hyde.

Epistolary

The ____ form is a novel written as a series of letters or journal entries between characters. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), Harker’s journal entries are used to ground the reader in a sublime and gothic landscape. Additionally, multiple diary entries, letters, and newspaper clippings provide the reader with a full picture of the narrative, allowing them to trace each characters individual experience and motives throughout the narrative. Moreover, the collaborative nature of the narrative helps reinforce the idea that Dracula can only be defeated through a team effort.

Female Gothic

This technique refers to uniquely feminine experiences of terror. Women characters remain contained in the domestic sphere, exploring anxieties around childbirth, marriage, and autonomy and analysing traditional gender roles and expectations. Ann Radcliffe is said to have coined the sub-genre and employs this technique throughout A Sicilian Romance (1790).

Catholicism and Gothic Horror

_____ is often associated with Gothic horror due to its ritualistic nature and perceived irrational doctrines. There are two texts studied in this course that discuss this tradition in detail, Matthew Lewis’ The Monk (1794), and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). The Monk explores the corruption of ____ institutions, commenting on unfair internal balances of power and the contrast between Protestant and Catholic viewpoints; it is largely critical of the beliefs. However, Dracula examines the historical power in tradition and ritualistic beliefs, as the weapons used to defeat Dracula come from the tradition.

Enlightenment vs. Gothic

The values of this period prioritised logic, reason, and order. Gothic literature is the antithesis of this as it delves into antiquity and history, often interrogating supernatural elements that defy logic as well as religions that oppose Protestant values. It is an exploration of everything the period labelled ‘taboo’, and seeks to revive ‘English culture’ through interaction with architecture, medieval values, and tradition. This is all while the tradition moves towards progress and modernity.

Explained Supernatural

Where supernatural elements and horrific plot-points are later explained by the narrative and always have some rational, scientific basis. Ann Radcliffe was famous for readily employing this technique, and does so in her novella A Sicilian Romance (1790). For example, the strange, horrific noises heard from the abandoned part of the castle are revealed to be Julia’s long-lost mother, held captive in a dramatic example of two notable Gothic techniques.

The Imp of the Perverse

It is manifested as a spirit that tempts someone to do something simply because they should not. The technique explores the theory that all people have self-destructive tendencies; it is an analysing of human behaviour and motives. Edgar Allen Poe notably coins this term in his short story ______. This technique reappears in many of his short stories, such as “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839) and “The Black Cat” (1843).

Atavism

This technique is a Darwinic theory where degeneration is imagined as a kind of regression. Traits associated with previous evolutionary generations reemerge in modern civilisation, such as savagery or animality. This is especially evident in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). Savagery and animalistic traits emerge in Dr. Jekyll’s alter-ego Mr. Hyde, especially noted in his frightening appearance and when he commits murder, recounting a feeling of joy after the incident.

Galvanism

It was first reported when Luigi Galvani used electricity to make dismembered frog legs twitch; it is the idea that a corpse, and mind, can be reanimated after death through artificial means. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) explores this concept thoroughly as she describes the animation of Frankenstein’s creature; a creature that is stitched together from the body parts of dead men. Galvanism embodies the dichotomy between religion and modern science, asking whether life remains sacred if modern science may prolong it through un-biblical means.

The Uncanny

It is a specific kind of terror that is associated with something old and familiar. A contextual example would be Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), which employs the uncanny when describing Mr. Hyde’s appearance. In the character description, it is undeniable that Mr. Hyde is a human being, although warped and animalistic in nature. It is the primitive, animalistic traits attributed to the character — pulled from descriptions of pre-evolution humans — that contributes to this unique feeling of terror.

Dreams and the Gothic

They are said to be the inspiration for many well-known Gothic texts. Among those studied in this course, Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto (1764) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) were documented as being inspired, at least in part, by ____. This is because the gothic tradition, in being irrational and concerned with that which defies logic, is associated with the subconscious — a state only interacted with in this state.

Spiritualism

It is the belief that one can communicate with the dead through mediums or other ritualistic means. It promised evidence of the afterlife, and quickly became a key theme explored in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) routinely mentions the ‘spirit’ as Sherlock Holmes describes his detective methods as using these techniques — not actively communing with the dead but travelling using his mind and spirit. Particularly, his description of ‘spirit hounds’ is a key example of this belief.

Eco-Gothic

It entwines terror and nature, exploring that which occurs naturally and inspires terror in humanity. Julia Leigh’s The Hunter (1999) is a key example of this technique, as she combines the sublime and uncanny with natural, Australian landscapes, derelict of human life and governed only by the will of the wilderness. Characters that interact with the natural world usually lose a part of their humanity, as Leigh’s main character does towards the end of the narrative, becoming more animalistic in their habits and lifestyle. It seeks to inspire an uncanny feeling in the reader as they witness this regression to a primitive state.