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Gothic Fiction

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iWonder - Spine-chillers and suspense: A timeline of Gothic fiction. Best Gothic Books Of All Time (410 books) The Romantic Age: Topic 2: Overview. The Gothic begins with later-eighteenth-century writers' turn to the past; in the context of the Romantic period, the Gothic is, then, a type of imitation medievalism.

The Romantic Age: Topic 2: Overview

The Gothic. Elements of the Gothic Novel. Robert Harris Version Date: June 15, 2015 The gothic novel was invented almost single-handedly by Horace Walpole, whose The Castle of Otranto (1764) contains essentially all the elements that constitute the genre.

Elements of the Gothic Novel

Walpole's novel was imitated not only in the eighteenth century and not only in the novel form, but it has influenced the novel, the short story, poetry, and even film making up to the present day. Gothic elements include the following: 1. Setting in a castle. The castle may be near or connected to caves, which lend their own haunting flavor with their darkness, uneven floors, branchings, claustrophobia, and mystery. Translated into the modern novel or filmmaking, the setting might be in an old house or mansion--or even a new house--where unusual camera angles, sustained close ups during movement, and darkness or shadows create the same sense of claustrophobia and entrapment. 2.

In modern novels and filmmaking, the inexplicable events are often murders. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1. Conventions of the Gothic Genre. There are a number of techniques, devices and conventions common to a great deal of Gothic literature: WEATHER: used in a number of ways and forms, some of these being: Mist - This convention in Gothic Literature is often used to obscure objects (this can be related to the sublime) by reducing visibility or to prelude the insertion of a terrifying person or thing; Storms - These frequently accompany important events.

Conventions of the Gothic Genre

Flashes of lightening accompany revelation; thunder and downpours prefigure the appearance of a character or the beginning of a significant event; Sunlight - represents goodness and pleasure; it also has the power to bestow these upon characters.THE SUBLIME: The definition of this key term has long been a contested term, but the idea of the sublime is essential to an understanding of Gothic poetics and, especially, the attempt to defend or justify the literature of terror. This of course is a selection of only a few elements of a novel, and no text is this predictable.

How to tell you're reading a gothic novel – in pictures. Gothic motifs. What does it mean to say a text is Gothic?

Gothic motifs

Professor John Bowen considers some of the best-known Gothic novels of the late 18th and 19th centuries, exploring the features they have in common, including marginal places, transitional time periods and the use of fear and manipulation. Professor John Bowen discusses key motifs in Gothic novels , including the uncanny, the sublime and the supernatural. Filmed at Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham. Gothic is a literary genre, and a characteristically modern one. The word ‘genre’ comes from the Latin ‘genus’ which means ‘kind’.

Strange places It is usual for characters in Gothic fiction to find themselves in a strange place; somewhere other, different, mysterious. Front cover for 1919 edition of Dracula Castle Dracula from the cover of the thirteenth edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1919. View images from this item (1) Great Expectations illustrated by John McLenan View images from this item (16) Clashing time periods. Gothic fiction. Genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance The name Gothic, which originally referred to the Goths, and then came to mean "German",[2] refers to the Gothic architecture of the medieval era of European history, in which many of these stories take place.

Gothic fiction

This extreme form of Romanticism was very popular throughout Europe, especially among English- and German-language writers and artists.[3] The English Gothic novel also led to new novel types such as the German Schauerroman and the French roman noir.[4] The Castle of Otranto (1764) is regarded as the first Gothic novel.