Gothic concepts

Femme Fatale → The Femme Fatale is depicted as a seductive and powerful woman who

conveys both femininity and sexuality, representing the fear of sexual transgression in

Victorian society. She represented being outside the parameters of society and was

therefore a threat to patriarchal power and values.

• Ecriture Feminine → Ecriture Feminine is a term coined by Helene Cixous in 1976 as a

genre of literary writing in which female authors rejected the education and knowledge

gap created by societal structures to reclaim the female body in writing and engage in

gender discourse.

• Liminality → Liminality is a term used to describe things which lie on a boundary

between two extremes either physically or metaphorically and so are often difficult to

comprehend, creating uncertainty and ambiguity.

• The grotesque → The grotesque in literature focuses on how the human body can be

distorted or exaggerated to elicit the reader’s sympathy and disgust.

• The Uncanny → A 1919 Freudian theory, the uncanny (unheimlich) was a term linked to

the feeling of being faced with something familiar but also unfamiliar and different.

• The Double/ Doppelgänger → Coined by Jean-Paul in 1796, the doppelganger is a literal

or symbolic double with two sides conveying a good-evil dichotomy which allows for the

exploration of human duality and confrontation of the division of the self.

• The Abject → Devised by Julia Kristeva in 1980, the Abject is a term used to describe

something that disturbs the self, by provoking disgust, fear, loathing, or repulsion. Gothic

literature sought to instil thrill from its emphasis on taboo subjects, which fascinated and

repelled British society.

• Orientalism → Coined by Edward Said in 1978, Orientalism refers to the 18th and 19th

Centuries defining the ‘Orient’ in stark contrast to the West as mysterious, barbaric,

irrational, seductive and dangerous.

• Female Gothic → Created by Ellen Moers in 1976, the Female Gothic refers to female

writers expressing the female experience in coded expressions which could not be

shown elsewhere in a patriarchal society such as the fears of childbirth and entrapment

within the domestic sphere, with the reader being often left with a logical explanation at

the end.

• Male Gothic → Male Gothic is horrifyingly violent, discussing the politics of identity and

containing disrupted gender patterns, graphic horror, the unexplained supernatural and

the mistreatment of women.

• Terror vs Horror → Terror is the feeling of intense dread at the possibility of something

frightening, whereas horror is the shock and repulsion of seeing the frightening thing

itself. Terror is characterised by psychological suspense over bodily gore.

• Romantic Gothic → Romantic Gothic emerged in 1790 as a subsection of the Gothic,

consisting of mysteries with supernatural elements containing a distressed heroine and a

Byronic antihero.

• Victorian Gothic → The Victorian Gothic transferred traditional Gothic components in

isolated settings to urban and modern settings in familiar environments to evoke the

traditional fears of Victorian society.

• Fin de Siècle Gothic → Fin de Siècle Gothic is characterised by a pervading sense of

instability and unease accompanied by a destabilising loss of control not only in the

personal sphere but also in the British Empire.

• Enlightenment → The Enlightenment was seen as a period of rigorous scientific, political,

and philosophical discourse where scientific experimentation was used to challenge

superstitious interpretations.

• Romanticism → From the late 18th Century to the early 19th Century, dissatisfied

individuals challenged the establishment of Enlightenment and instead were inspired by

a desire for liberty and expressing authentic personal feelings.

• Sublime → The sublime is a concept originating from Edmund Burke in 1757 which

expresses the feelings that one experiences when overwhelming terror leads to a sort of

delight. The sublime is often inspired by the grandeur of nature.

• High Gothic → from 1789 to 1813, High Gothic emerged because of the need for terror

driven by political troubles in the country.

• Damsel in distress → The damsel in distress is a beautiful female figure painted as an

the object of desire for both the male characters and the audience whareo is incarcerated by a

sadistic villain, which allows male characters to rescue her from peril and reassert their

masculinity.

• Supernatural → The supernatural consists of paranormal elements intended to haunt

the protagonists, making the readers feel disillusioned from the natural world by serving

both entertainment and cultural commentary.

• American Gothic → American Gothic focuses on the macabre and perverseness of

humanity and the horrors of living in a close-knit community as well as rationality vs

irrationality, Puritan imagery and religious trauma, fear of the unknown and the ab

human. American Gothic is a social commentary on everyday life's hidden and repressed

feelings.

• Southern American Gothic → Southern Gothic established itself in the mid-20th Century,

concerning itself with disturbed personalities, racism, poverty, violence, moral

corruption and ambiguity and dealing with the repressions of the region’s historical

realities.