The concept of "Gothic" in the literature defines a genre that combines horror, romance, science fiction and adventure. The discoverer of the genre was the English writer Horace Walpole and his novel Otranto Castle.
Origin of the term
Today, the term "Gothic" is associated with many different directions in art, history and culture. It directly relates to architecture, literature, painting and music. However, the original meaning of the term comes, of course, from the name of the German people - the Goths.
The Goths were one of many related, but very belligerent Germanic tribes. They were almost always at war with their neighbors and united with them only to fight against the Romans. The peak of their fame was the V century, when the tribes of the Western and Eastern Goths defeated Rome and conquered most of Spain. After that, the history of the tribe was absorbed in the history of the countries they conquered.
Many centuries passed before the term "Gothic" began to mean anything else. During the Renaissance, when classical culture received its second birth, the architectural style of the Middle Ages was called “Gothic”. A few centuries later, a certain type of novels began to be called so, most likely because the authors preferred the ancient buildings of the Gothic style with a mysterious history as the scene.
The story of a gothic novel
The Gothic novel appeared on the early wave of romanticism in the middle of the 18th century and gained extraordinary popularity in the 19th century. He was born in England as a reaction to the strict formal style of the novels of the time.
However, do not take the Gothic novel as the brainchild of romanticism. Its roots go much deeper into history, affecting medieval horror stories, folk tales, beliefs and sayings. The same old sources of inspiration are also used by modern Gothic novels, for example, this trend is clearly visible in the works of Stephen King or Anne Rice.
The first Gothic novel was the work of Horace Walpole's Otranto Castle, first published in 1764. The author himself said that he was interested in both modern and medieval novels, but Walpole found flaws in both genres that he tried to get rid of in Otranto Castle. According to him, the traditional medieval romance is too bizarre, and the modern one is too realistic. However, critics took the innovation with hostility, explaining that such a mixture of fiction, history and fictional documents goes against acceptable literary principles.
Despite professional criticism, the Gothic novel in English literature gained extraordinary popularity, which then influenced the emergence of a similar genre in German (Schauerroman) and French literature (Georgia and Roman Noir).
The Gothic novel in Russia was called fantastic, and the number of writers who enriched this genre included Pushkin (The Queen of Spades), Lermontov (The Hero of Our Time) and Gogol (Viy, Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka).
Elements of a Gothic novel
The main features of the Gothic novel during its formation were emphasized by the boundaries of romanticism permitted in literature. Despite the desire of this cultural movement to excite feelings and arouse emotions, romantic literature of the mid-18th century was too strict from the point of view of modernity.
The authors of Gothic novels sought to shake the established structure of literature of that time, paying attention to darker and unknown topics that could not be revealed using acceptable and permissible methods. Fear, violence, mystery - all these are the elements that need additional literary means. The Gothic novel in English literature made the reader go beyond the boundaries of the known and explainable; it was based more on mood, perception, on unconscious, but strong emotional impulses and hidden interests.
According to many critics, the Gothic novel was a description of the fallen world, and this very world was shown to the reader using the basic elements of a traditional novel, which, however, are very different in characteristics.
Scene
Almost all Gothic-style novels rely on the scene to provide the emotional coloring of the work. Therefore, descriptions of places, landscapes, weather and other elements of the environment play a very important role in this genre.
The typical scene of a Gothic novel not only provokes a sense of fear and horror, but also describes the withering of the world as a whole. Old buildings, ruins, abandoned places indicate that once life here was in full swing, and now all that remains is just a shadow of the past, lurking in its history and keeping forgotten secrets.
main characters
The heroes of Gothic novels form a kind of archetypes, and there is a sample of their characteristics, which is suitable for most works.
The main character is usually alone, he is often in exile or imprisonment - of his own free will or against her. An antihero is the embodiment of evil - a state achieved by him through his own fault, as a result of a series of actions and decisions, or through the fault of others. The protagonist of the works of this genre is often a wanderer wandering the Earth, being in eternal exile, which can be a kind of divine punishment.
Plot
Often the plot of a Gothic novel reflects a withering world. The main character, tired of loneliness / imprisonment / exile, is faced with evil, often in the form of temptation or deception. Temptation prompts the hero to go against himself, commit sin and end his fall. For example, in the novel Ambrosio, or Monk by M. G. Lewis, the protagonist is an exemplary monk of the Spanish order, seduced by Matilda, who is actually a demon sent for the soul of a monk.
Topics
Despite the fact that the main themes of the Gothic genre are supernatural and unattainable, among them the main theme of all romanticism is clearly traced - the problem of the “extra man”, a kind of Byronic hero eaten by contradictions.
One has only to look beyond the curtain of horror and the supernatural, as the hero becomes an understandable person who, like everyone else, is characterized by fear and doubt. Gothic literature simply tends to greatly exaggerate all the fears that a person encounters daily.
Criticism of Gothic Literature
The Gothic novel during its existence has been subjected to various criticisms. Literary figures often associated elements of a Gothic novel with hidden feelings and desires. The new century and the development of psychoanalysis was the reason for drawing parallels between the Gothic elements and the human subconscious.
According to Davis Morris, this genre - a Gothic novel - provides an outlet for those emotions, desires and fears that a person usually seeks to control, hide and ignore. The struggle of the protagonist with supernatural evil is a metaphor for a very real struggle that a person wages with unwanted and undercurrents.
Women's Gothic Literature
The English Gothic novel with its castles, dungeons, dark forests and secret paths, served as the birth of a unique phenomenon for English literature of that time. Women's Gothic literature, pioneered by Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, and Charlotte Bronte, allowed female writers to express their professional and social ambitions as well as their sexual desires for the first time. The free style of the Gothic novel allowed ladies to raise issues such as gender hierarchy, patriarchal values, and sexual repression of women in a conservative English society.
It was women's novels that introduced such a literary device as “an explanation of the supernatural.” This cunning trick allowed the ladies to write novels similar in appearance, mood and often content to Gothic, but they, however, described a completely real life.
Gothic influence on romantic poets
The best Gothic novels had a tangible impact on the English romantic poets. Famous works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - “The Legend of the Old Sailor” and “Christabel”, as well as the mystical works of John Keats “Eve of St. Agnes” and “Isabella”, have similar Gothic elements. Features of the Gothic novel, such as visions, ghosts, storms and terrifying descriptions of gloomy landscapes, were borrowed by poets from the works of Ann Radcliffe.
The first published work by Percy Bysshe Shelley was the Gothic novel "Zastroci" about an exile obsessed with revenge on his father and half-brother. A year later, the second novel Saint Irvine was published, the main character of which was an alchemist who wanted to reveal the secret of eternal life. Both works were a rather crude and shallow version of the Gothic novel, but they influenced not only Shelley’s career, but also his future wife, who became the author of Frankenstein.
Not the last role in the development of the Gothic genre was played by the famous Lord Byron. His abandoned mistress described the poet as a “crazy, evil and dangerous” person, which became the main features of Childe Harold's alter ego - the prototype of the Byronic hero.
In addition, Byron often held competitions for the best mystical story among his circle of friends-writers, including himself, the spouses Shelley and John Polidori. According to critics, it was precisely these meetings that served as the reason for the creation of Frankenstein and Polidori's story Vampire.
Victorian era and rethinking the gothic genre
By the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign, the popularity of the Gothic novel had fallen dramatically, partly due to negative criticism, partly due to the popularity of Walter Scott's historical novels. However, Victorian literature awaited a rethinking of the Gothic genre.
The most important innovator in Gothic literature is considered to be Edgar Alan Poe. The writer paid as much attention to the psychology of his characters as the traditional elements of the genre. Being an excellent literary critic, Poe perfectly understood both the advantages and disadvantages of the Gothic style, therefore he focused on the mental state of his characters. In his opinion, horror was a literary topic worthy of study.
Changes occurred in the female Gothic novel. "Wuthering Heights" Emily Bronte has all the necessary elements: a dark scene, ghosts and a Byronic hero in the person of Heathcliff. However, the main character of the novel is not just imprisoned, but experiences the injustice of the patriarchal society and sexual discrimination. The protagonists of the Bronte sisters brought social background to the female Gothic novel.
The genre strongly influenced such characteristic writers of the era as Charles Dickens. He stood at the foundations of the gothic literature called "urban gothic romance." On the pages of his works, the streets of London become the same Gothic depressing scene, evoking horror and a desire to escape. Works such as Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and The Cold House transferred the effect of the Gothic novel to city avenues and alleys.
The writers of the late nineteenth century followed in the footsteps of Dickens. The end of the Victorian era marked a new wave of popularity of the urban Gothic novel, which was reborn thanks to the works of Robert Lewis Stevenson (The Strange Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Henry James (The Turn of the Screw) and Oscar Wilde (Portrait of Dorian Gray).
The most famous antagonist of the Gothic genre - Count Dracula - appeared on the pages of the Bram Stoker novel of the same name . Stocker attracted the attention of mystic writers to Transylvania and Eastern Europe as a whole, making the region a favorite venue for Gothic novels.
Modern Gothic Novels
Many modern science fiction writers and representatives of many other genres use elements of Gothic in their works. Gothic horror novels, vivid examples of which can be the works of Anne Rice, skillfully combine the traditions of the 18th century with the freedom of literary expression characteristic of modern literature. Gothic, in one way or another, are some of the novels of Stephen King and the work of Daphne du Maurier. Numerous rethinking of vampire stories takes advantage of certain Gothic charm. Also, some works by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and even Dan Brown can be added to the Gothic genre.