The Gothic Tradition

occult - that which is taboo (knowledge) and we shouldn’t try to find, because it would place us in the realm of god

byronic hero - male bad yet admirable characters

Early Gothic (1760-1790)

Examples:

  • The Castle of Otranto - Walpole 1764

  • Vathek - Beckford 1786 (oriental)

  • The Romance of the Forest - Radcliffe, 1791

  • The Mysteries of Udolpho - Radcliffe, 1794

  • The Monk - Lewis 1796

  • Melmoth the Wanderer - Maturin 1820

Tropes

  • female victims - Emily St. Aubert: The Mysteries of Udolpho, Antonia: The Monk, Isabella: The Castle of Otranto

  • gothic castles/monasteries/convents - the monastery The Monk (superiority of protestantism) ; the castle in The Castle of Otranto (residue of feudal/aristocratic past)

    • labyrinths, darkness - imprisonment. fear of being trapped within our own mind/selves, forced to explore the space of our own mind

  • past haunting the present - the prophecy, The Castle of Otranto

    • wrongs being made right - the end of The Castle of Otranto

  • supernatural - portrait in The Castle of Otranto

    • the picture of dorian gray - the picture becomes more ugly dorian stays beautiful - bargain with the devil → ambrosio sells his soul to the devil as well

  • entrapment - Antonia’s entrapment in The Monk, Emily’s entrapment in the Castle of Udolpho, The Mysteries of Udolpho, Isabella hiding in the monastery fearing Manfred’s rape The Castle of Otranto

  • the wandering Jew - only in The Monk really - metaphor for guilt and despair, wanders until someone takes their place?

→ arguably the main source of terror in TCoO are the people, such as Manfred the predatory male, not unlike the Marquis in TBC - Carter criticises the tradition of violent, patriarchal males

Oriental

Examples:

  • Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

  • Vathek - William Beckford

  • The Italian

Romantic

Examples

  • Frankenstein - Shelley 1818

Tropes:

sublime - feeling of one’s insignificance compared to the world or nature

love, fear, death and the supernatural - examining how they interact with the human experience

individual’s relationship with the natural world

  • damsels in distress

  • intense emotions

  • vast, gloomy and secluded settings - Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights the moors

Victorian

Examples:

  • Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 1847

  • Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 1847

  • The Woman in White - Collins 1859

  • Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Stevenson 1886

  • The Yellow Wallpaper - Gilman 1892

  • Dracula - Bram Stoker 1897

  • The Turn of the Screw - James 1898

Tropes:

  • urban landscape - once separated social classes living closer together in london, Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Frankenstein

  • public vs private life/dopplegangers and appearances - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jane Eyre (bertha) (living a double life, dopplegangers)

    • outward appearance determines the quality of a man, despite any controversy. Whereas in The Picture of Dorian Gray Dorian’s friends have heard of his scandal, Dracula is immediately ostracised despite his Count title, because of his appearance

  • madness/psychological horror, reflecting growing interest in human psyche & mental health - Dracula (Renfield), The Yellow Wallpaper, The Turn of the Screw, governess’s mental decline

→ madness often as a result of trauma or sometimes repressed desires

  • physical and emotional entrapment - Great Expectations, Miss Havisham’s obsession with the past, rejecting human connection, Jane Eyre confinement both for Jane and Bertha, Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff’s emotional isolation outside of society

    • emotional/psychological entrapment not only reflect the increasing interest in mental health, but rigid social structures, industrialisation and ideas of individualism. the tension between personal freedom and societal constraints

Fin de Siècle

Examples

  • Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Stevenson 1886

  • The Yellow Wallpaper - Gilman 1892

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde 1891

  • Dracula - Bram Stoker 1897

Tropes:

surge in popularity of the gothic - marked a time of great uncertainty. queen victoria was entering old age and the celebrated country was drawing to a close

→ fear of the scientific, cultural, economic progression slowing down - anxieties of degeneration

  • urban settings - dark and labyrinthine streets provide anonymity to appear respectable yet take part in illicit behaviour

  • transgressive behaviour - sexually, Dracula and The Picture of Dorian Gray

→ Dracula was the last member of a noble race, defender against invasions from farther east. he is also one of the last remnants of the feudal aristocracy that has to be buried, that cannot change with the modernity of the fin de siecle

Early 20th century

Southern

Examples

  • To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 1962

  • Beloved - Morrison

  • Light in August - William Faulkner 1932

  • Outer Dark - Cormac McCarthy

Tropes:

literature haunted by the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow laws

  • the past - Light in August flashbacks, narrative structure indicates past haunting present, Beloved, ghosts of the Beloved haunts Sethe for her infanticide

  • fractured identity - Joe Christmas in Light in August uncertain identity, characters switching names - Joe Christmas → McEachern, Lucas Burch → Joe Brown

  • decay - ruined plantations in Light in August

  • Biblical themes - Light in August can be read as an allegory for virgin mary and christ, Outer Dark title is taken from the Bible, novel begins with an apocalyptic dream like the end of the world

  • violence - Beloved, violence against Sethe by the schoolmaster

Postmodern gothic

Examples:

  • The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter 1979

  • The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter

  • The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 1984

Tropes:

  • reworking old texts - The Wasp Factory, protagonist’s father conducts experiments locked in a secret room, not unlike Frankenstein

  • truth is subjective - challenges & is sceptical of universal truths of society (like patriarchy)

  • intertextuality - suggests that all art is shaped by the art before it, questions notions of originality

  • magical realism - fantasy slips into everyday life, stories are not concerned with the magic itself but the aftermath & what it highlights

  • playful and sometimes meaningless, cynical and ironic

  • non-linear, fragmented ambiguous narratives

Contemporary

Examples:

  • The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson 1959

  • Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice 1976

  • The Shining - Stephen King 1977

  • Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2020

Tropes:

  • fear - not just from external threats, but psychological and emotional that explores societal anxieties, reflecting the fragility of the human mind

    • The Haunting of Hill House, Jackson discusses Eleanor’s deteriorating mental state.

    • The Shining, King explores fear through Jack’s psychological decline

  • tool for cultural commentary - Mexican Gothic comments on colonialism, racial oppression and gender inequality

  • supernatural not only evokes external terror, but blurs the lines between imagination and reality - creating a sense of disorientation and unease. used to explore psychological unease

    • The Haunting of Hill House, the house is portrayed as a living entity of its own will, yet this is not confirmed, blurring the lines of internal and external, making it more terrifying

    • Wolf-Alice is confirmed to be human yet exists as a bestial character - her supernaturality may initially invoke unease, but Carter depicts her as a refreshing perspective on humanity

HMs:

  • The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) and others of Poe’s works largely introduced psychological terror into the gothic

David Punter notes

  • gothic portrays our fears as backward, things of the fast

  • dracula seemed very modern of course