![]() The emergence of psychological theories in the late Victorian era, such as Eduard von Hartmann’s ‘The Philosophy of the Unconscious’, laid the foundations for the development of the ideologies which would eventually lead to modern psychology, such as Freud’s invention of psychoanalysis (“Eduard von Hartmann”). However, as interest in the world beyond began to grow, so did interest in the world within. Because of this spike in interest, the frequency of séances and supernatural phenomenon soon drew the attention of the public. As the Victorian era progressed, the practice of Spiritualism began to grow, both in practice and in notoriety. The themes that occur in literature are almost always a direct result of the society in which the author is immersed. ![]() Although the occurrences of insanity and the supernatural may seem coincidental or unrelated, a closer examination of the culture surrounding such literature tells a different story. Just as frequent, however, is the theme of insanity - of hallucinations, anxiety, and complete mental breakdown - particularly in Gothic texts’ weakest female characters. When reading and reviewing Gothic texts, the prevalence of ghosts, mysterious apparitions, and unexplainable sounds and events is apparent. The truth behind the influence of Gothic literature can be found in two of its most common themes: the supernatural and madness. While some may attribute the genre’s sudden gain in popularity to a shift in the interests of writers and artists, it is impossible to ignore the various social factors that influenced the eerie genre’s uprising. However, the genre did not truly take off until the Victorian era, which spanned most of the nineteenth-century. Stine's "Goosebumps" series.Gothic literature began in the mid-eighteenth-century with Horace Walpole’s ‘The Castle of Otranto’, which is widely considered to the first true work of Gothic fiction (‘The Castle of Otranto’). Both vampire and horror novels have spawned their own genres, targeting all ages, including teens, through such books as Stephanie Meyers' "The Twilight Saga," and children, through R. ![]() Their books incorporate classic horror characters such as vampires, hearkening back to Stoker's "Dracula," and serial killers, playing on the same fascination Victorians had toward the notorious "Jack the Ripper" in 19th-century England. Stephen King and Anne Rice are both household names in Gothic fiction who use the unknown to build suspense. Today, many genres derive from the Gothic tradition. The work of Flannery O'Connor and Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" also exemplify these conventions. The Southern Gothic tradition typically combines horror and the bizarre with race or class struggles in a rural setting. Gothic literature spread to the United States in the 19th century through American writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, with his famous poems "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" and short stories "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado." A literary development within American Gothic is Southern Gothic, of which Poe was a part, and which included texts such as William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily," which narrates the story of a reclusive necrophiliac. Moreau" and the quintessential vampire novel, Bram Stoker's "Dracula." Victorian Gothic novels reveal much about Victorian anxieties regarding industrialization, Darwinism and religion. Hyde," Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray," H. More male writers picked up Gothic conventions in the Victorian era, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" novels, Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jane Austen's class romance "Northanger Abbey" both parodies and sympathizes with the enormously popular Radcliffe trend. Romanticism's legacy of not only Anne Radcliffe but Mary Shelley and the Bronte sisters saw the domestication of the Gothic novel. Because many of these Gothic novelists published during the era of Romanticism, a literary movement also characterized by excess, sensibility and imagination, Gothic writers during this period are also considered Romantic. Chaste, fainting heroines, corrupt, scheming monks and chivalric, knightly heroes drive the plots. Gothic novels take place in medieval settings and isolated locales, such as Italian castles or monasteries. Horace Walpole and William Beckford introduced a new genre of literature with "The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story" (1765) and "Vathek" (1786) respectively, a style which later writers, such as Matthew Lewis and Anne Radcliffe, would imitate and perfect. Gothic fiction began with the Gothic novel.
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