Gothic waves

First wave (setting)

• 1764-1818

• set in past: mostly in Spain and Italy: anti-catholic thinking

• not isolated in early gothic novels

• melodramatic, sensationalistic

• limited tropes

• end: frankenstein: running out of steam - seems absurd

Second wave (location)

• 1880-1900

• gothic comes back geographically set in contemporary world, closer to home e.g London - more threatening as it is closer: pinnacle of civilisation is London - a place where the Gothic typically resides now.

• vicotrian london: poor and rich live close together. rural england landoqner and tenants diff heirarchy, but in city collisions between rich and poor

• late victorian culture: fear of underculture in slums: fear of a revolution

• Had many hidden spaces e.g alleyways: noir space: sense that things are hiding in city, labyrinth

• illicit (hidden) homosexual brothels

Second Wave (Degeneration)

• 1880-1900

• degeneration - idea that ppl were evolving backwards: darwin 1850s theory of evolution: descent of man - anxiety that evolution worked backwards due to bad environments

• degenerates: linked to criminal types, foreigners, females, artists: by 20thc - eugenics - wiping ppl out

Third wave

• 1970s

• New science

• Twilight (series) USA

• Interview with a vampire (Anne Rice) USA

Second wave (something monstrous)

• 1880-1900

• The idea that the supposedly civilised (e.g doctors, lawyers: they have have something monstrous: everyone has something inside their heads which makes them monstrous) subject harbours something alien within is particularly emphasised by the return of the double: doppelgänger. Undermines the nature of the sense of identity: cannot understand oneself: the idea of the integrated/whole self comes under attack.