Gothic fiction

"Gothic literature" redirects here. It may also refer to texts in the extinctGothic language.For fiction associated with the goth scene, seeGoth subculture § Books and magazines.

The Castle of Otranto(1764) is regarded as the first Gothic novel. The aesthetics of the book have shaped modern-day gothic books, films, art, music and the goth subculture.

Gothic fiction,sometimes calledGothic horror(primarily in the 20th century), is a loose literary aesthetic offearandhaunting.The name refers toGothic architectureof the EuropeanMiddle Ages,which was characteristic of the settings of early Gothic novels.

The first work to call itself Gothic wasHorace Walpole's 1764 novelThe Castle of Otranto,later subtitled "A Gothic Story". Subsequent 18th-century contributors includedClara Reeve,Ann Radcliffe,William Thomas Beckford,andMatthew Lewis.The Gothic influence continued into the early 19th century; works by theRomantic poets,likeSamuel Taylor ColeridgeandLord Byron,and novelists such asMary Shelley,Charles Maturin,Walter ScottandE. T. A. Hoffmannfrequently drew upon gothic motifs in their works.

The earlyVictorian periodcontinued the use of gothic aesthetic in novels byCharles Dickensand theBrontë sisters,as well as works by the American writersEdgar Allan PoeandNathaniel Hawthorne.Later well-known works wereDraculabyBram Stoker,Richard Marsh'sThe BeetleandRobert Louis Stevenson'sStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.Twentieth-century contributors includeDaphne du Maurier,Stephen King,Shirley Jackson,Anne Rice,andToni Morrison.

Characteristics

The ruins of Wolf's Crag castle inWalter Scott'sThe Bride of Lammermoor(1819)

Gothic fiction is characterized by an environment of fear, the threat ofsupernaturalevents, and the intrusion of the past upon the present.The setting typically includes physical reminders of the past, especially through ruined buildings which stand as proof of a previously thriving world which is decaying in the present.Characteristic settings in the 18th and 19th centuries include castles, religious buildings such asmonasteriesandconvents,andcrypts.The atmosphere is typicallyclaustrophobic,and common plot elements include vengeful persecution, imprisonment, and murder.The depiction of horrible events in Gothic fiction often serves as a metaphorical expression of psychological or social conflicts.The form of a Gothic story is usually discontinuous and convoluted, often incorporating tales within tales, changing narrators, and framing devices such as discovered manuscripts or interpolated histories.Other characteristics, regardless of relevance to the main plot, can include sleeplike and deathlike states, live burials,doubles,unnatural echoes or silences, the discovery of obscured family ties, unintelligible writings, nocturnal landscapes, remote locations,and dreams.Especially in the late 19th century, Gothic fiction often involveddemonsanddemonic possession,ghosts,and other kinds of evil spirits.

Gothic fiction often moves between "high culture"and"low"or" popular culture ".

Role of architecture

Strawberry Hill,an English villa in the "Gothic Revival"style, built by Gothic writerHorace Walpole

TheGothic Templefolly in the gardens at Stowe,Buckinghamshire,UK, built as a ruin in 1741, designed byJames Gibbs

Gothic literature is strongly associated with theGothic Revival architectureof the same era. English Gothic writers often associated medieval buildings with what they saw as a dark and terrifying period, marked by harsh laws enforced by torture and with mysterious, fantastic, and superstitious rituals. Similar to the Gothic Revivalists' rejection of the clarity and rationalism of theNeoclassicalstyle of theEnlightenedEstablishment, the literary Gothic embodies an appreciation of the joys of extreme emotion, the thrills of fearfulness and awe inherent in thesublime,and a quest for atmosphere. Gothic ruins invoke multiple linked emotions by representing inevitable decay and the collapse of human creations – hence the urge to add fake ruins as eyecatchers in English landscape parks.

Placing a story in a Gothic building serves several purposes. It inspires feelings of awe, implies that the story is set in the past, gives an impression of isolation or dissociation from the rest of the world, and conveys religious associations. Setting the novel in a Gothic castle was meant to imply a story set in the past and shrouded in darkness. The architecture often served as a mirror for the characters and events of the story.The buildings inThe Castle of Otranto,for example, are riddled with tunnels that characters use to move back and forth in secret. This movement mirrors the secrets surrounding Manfred's possession of the castle and how it came into his family.

The Female Gothic

From the castles, dungeons, forests, and hidden passages of the Gothic novel genre emerged female Gothic. Guided by the works of authors such asAnn Radcliffe,Mary Shelley,andCharlotte Brontë,the female Gothic allowed women's societal and sexual desires to be introduced. In many respects, the novel's intended reader of the time was the woman who, even as she enjoyed such novels, felt she had to "[lay] down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame,"according toJane Austen.The Gothic novel shaped its form for woman readers to "turn to Gothic romances to find support for their own mixed feelings."

Female Gothic narratives focus on such topics as a persecuted heroine fleeing from a villainous father and searching for an absent mother. At the same time, male writers tend towards the masculine transgression of social taboos. The emergence of the ghost story gave women writers something to write about besides the common marriage plot, allowing them to present a more radical critique of male power, violence, and predatory sexuality.Authors such asMary RobinsonandCharlotte Dacrehowever, present a counter to the naive and persecuted heroines usually featured in female Gothic of the time, and instead feature more sexually assertive heroines in their works.

When the female Gothic coincides with the explained supernatural the natural cause of terror is not the supernatural, but female disability and societal horrors: rape, incest, and the threatening control of a male antagonist. Female Gothic novels also address women's discontent with patriarchal society, their difficult and unsatisfying maternal position, and their role within that society. Women's fears of entrapment in the domestic, their bodies, marriage, childbirth, or domestic abuse commonly appear in the genre.

After the characteristic GothicBildungsroman-like plot sequence, female Gothic allowed readers to grow from "adolescence to maturity"in the face of the realized impossibilities of the supernatural. As protagonists such as Adeline inThe Romance of the Forestlearn that their superstitious fantasies and terrors are replaced by natural cause and reasonable doubt, the reader may grasp the heroine's true position: "The heroine possesses the romantic temperament that perceives strangeness where others see none. Her sensibility, therefore, prevents her from knowing that her true plight is her condition, the disability of being female."

History

Precursors

'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on.

— Lines from Shakespeare'sHamlet

The components that would eventually combine into Gothic literature had a rich history by the time Walpole presented a fictitious medieval manuscript inThe Castle of Otrantoin 1764.

The plays ofWilliam Shakespeare,in particular, were a crucial reference point for early Gothic writers, in both an effort to bring credibility to their works, and to legitimize the emerging genre as serious literature to the public.Tragedies such asHamlet,Macbeth,King Lear,Romeo and Juliet,andRichard III,with plots revolving around the supernatural, revenge, murder, ghosts,witchcraft,and omens, written in dramatic pathos, and set in medieval castles, were a huge influence upon early Gothic authors, who frequently quote, and make allusions to Shakespeare's works.

John Milton'sParadise Lost(1667) was also very influential among Gothic writers, who were especially drawn to the tragic anti-hero characterSatan,who became a model for many charismatic Gothic villains andByronic heroes.Milton's "version of the myth of the fall and redemption, creation and decreation, is, asFrankensteinagain reveals, an important model for Gothic plots. "

Alexander Pope,who had a considerable influence on Walpole, was the first significant poet of the 18th century to write a poem in an authentic Gothic manner.Eloisa to Abelard(1717), a tale of star-crossed lovers, one doomed to a life of seclusion in a convent, and the other in a monastery, abounds in gloomy imagery, religious terror, and suppressed passion. The influence of Pope's poem is found throughout 18th-century Gothic literature, including the novels of Walpole, Radcliffe, and Lewis.

Gothic literature is often described with words such as "wonder" and "terror."This sense of wonder and terror that provides thesuspension of disbeliefso important to the Gothic—which, except for when it is parodied, even for all its occasionalmelodrama,is typically played straight, in a self-serious manner—requires the imagination of the reader to be willing to accept the idea that there might be something "beyond that which is immediately in front of us." The mysterious imagination necessary for Gothic literature to have gained any traction had been growing for some time before the advent of the Gothic. The need for this came as the known world was becoming more explored, reducing the geographical mysteries of the world. The edges of the map were filling in, and no dragons were to be found. The human mind required a replacement.Clive Bloom theorizes that this void in the collective imagination was critical in developing the cultural possibility for the rise of the Gothic tradition.

The setting of most early Gothic works was medieval, but this was a common theme long before Walpole. In Britain especially, there was a desire to reclaim a shared past. This obsession frequently led to extravagant architectural displays, such asFonthill Abbey,and sometimes mock tournaments were held. It was not merely in literature that a medieval revival made itself felt, and this, too, contributed to a culture ready to accept a perceived medieval work in 1764.

The Gothic often uses scenery of decay, death, and morbidity to achieve its effects (especially in the Italian Horror school of Gothic). However, Gothic literature was not the origin of this tradition; it was far older. The corpses, skeletons, and churchyards so commonly associated with early Gothic works were popularized by theGraveyard poets.They were also present in novels such asDaniel Defoe'sA Journal of the Plague Year,which contains comical scenes of plague carts and piles of corpses. Even earlier, poets likeEdmund Spenserevoked a dreary and sorrowful mood in such poems asEpithalamion.

All aspects of pre-Gothic literature occur to some degree in the Gothic, but even taken together, they still fall short of true Gothic.What needed to be added was an aesthetic to tie the elements together. Bloom notes that this aesthetic must take the form of a theoretical or philosophical core, which is necessary to "sav[e] the best tales from becoming mere anecdote or incoherent sensationalism."In this case, the aesthetic needed to be emotional, and was finally provided byEdmund Burke's 1757 work,A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful,which "finally codif[ied] the gothic emotional experience."Specifically, Burke's thoughts on the Sublime, Terror, and Obscurity were most applicable. These sections can be summarized thus: the Sublime is that which is or produces the "strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling"; Terror most often evoked the Sublime; and to cause Terror, we need some amount of Obscurity – we can't know everything about that which is inducing Terror – or else "a great deal of the apprehension vanishes"; Obscurity is necessary to experience the Terror of the unknown.Bloom asserts that Burke's descriptive vocabulary was essential to the Romantic works that eventually informed the Gothic.

The birth of Gothic literature was thought to have been influenced by political upheaval. Researchers linked its birth with theEnglish Civil War,culminating in aJacobiterebellion (1745) more recent to the first Gothic novel (1764). The collective political memory and any deep cultural fears associated with it likely contributed to early Gothic villains as literary representatives of defeatedTorybarons orRoyalists"rising" from their political graves in the pages of early Gothic novels to terrorize thebourgeoisreader of late eighteenth-century England.

Eighteenth-century Gothic novels

Main article:Eighteenth-century Gothic novel

Ann Radcliffe'sThe Mysteries of Udolpho(1794), a bestselling novel that was critical in setting off the Gothic craze of the 1790s

The first work to call itself "Gothic" wasHorace Walpole'sThe Castle of Otranto(1764).The first edition presented the story as a translation of a sixteenth- century manuscript and was widely popular. Walpole, in the second edition, revealed himself as the author which adding the subtitle "A Gothic Story." The revelation prompted a backlash from readers, who considered it inappropriate for a modern author to write a supernatural story in a rational age.Walpole did not initially prompt many imitators. Beginning withClara Reeve'sThe Old English Baron(1778), the 1780s saw more writers attempting his combination of supernatural plots with emotionally realistic characters. Examples includeSophia Lee'sThe Recess(1783–5) andWilliam Beckford'sVathek(1786).

Minerva Pressnotice from October 1795 listing new publications, including many Gothic titles.

At the height of the Gothic novel's popularity in the 1790s, the genre was almost synonymous withAnn Radcliffe,whose works were highly anticipated and widely imitated.The Romance of the Forest(1791) andThe Mysteries of Udolpho(1794) were particularly popular.In an essay on Radcliffe,Walter Scott,writes of the popularity ofUdolphoat the time, "The very name was fascinating, and the public, who rushed upon it with all the eagerness of curiosity, rose from it with unsated appetite. When a family was numerous, the volumes flew, and were sometimes torn from hand to hand."Radcliffe's novels were often seen as the feminine and rational opposite of a more violently horrifying male Gothic associated withMatthew Lewis.Radcliffe's final novel,The Italian(1797), responded to Lewis'sThe Monk(1796),Radcliffe and Lewis have been called "the two most significant Gothic novelists of the 1790s."

The popularity and influence ofThe Mysteries of UdolphoandThe Monksaw the rise of shorter and cheaper versions of Gothic literature in the forms ofGothic bluebooksandchapbooks,which in many cases were plagiarized and abridgments of well known Gothic novels.The Monkin particular, with its immoral and sensational content, saw many plagiarized copies, and was notably drawn from in the cheaper pamphlets.

Other notable Gothic novels of the 1790s includeWilliam Godwin'sCaleb Williams(1794),Regina Maria Roche'sClermont(1798), andCharles Brockden Brown'sWieland(1798), as well as large numbers of anonymous works published by theMinerva Press.In continental Europe, Romantic literary movements led to related Gothic genres such as the GermanSchauerromanand the French Roman noir.Eighteenth-century Gothic novels were typically set in a distant past and (for English novels) a distant European country, but without specific dates or historical figures that characterized the later development of historical fiction.

Catherine Morland, the naive protagonist ofNorthanger Abbey(1818),Jane Austen's Gothic parody

The saturation of Gothic-inspired literature during the 1790s was referred to in a letter bySamuel Taylor Coleridge,writing on 16 March 1797, "indeed I am almost weary of the Terrible, having been a hireling in theCritical Reviewfor the last six or eight months – I have been reviewingthe Monk,the Italian,Hubert de Sevrac&c &c &c – in all of which dungeons, and old castles, & solitary Houses by the Sea Side & Caverns & Woods & extraordinary characters & all the tribe of Horror & Mystery, have crowded on me – even to surfeiting. "

The excesses, stereotypes, and frequent absurdities of the Gothic genre made it rich territory for satire.HistorianRictor Nortonnotes that satire of Gothic literature was common from 1796 until the 1820s, including early satirical works such asThe New Monk(1798),More Ghosts!(1798) andRosella, or Modern Occurrences(1799). Gothic novels themselves, according to Norton, also possess elements of self-satire, "By having profane comic characters as well as sacred serious characters, the Gothic novelist could puncture the balloon of the supernatural while at the same time affirming the power of the imagination."After 1800 there was a period in which Gothic parodies outnumbered forthcoming Gothic novels.InThe HeroinebyEaton Stannard Barrett(1813), Gothic tropes are exaggerated for comic effect.InJane Austen's novelNorthanger Abbey(1818), the naive protagonist, a female named Catherine, conceives herself as a heroine of a Radcliffean romance and imagines murder and villainy on every side. However, the truth turns out to be much more prosaic. This novel is also noted for including a list of early Gothic works known as theNorthanger Horrid Novels.

Second generation orJüngere Romantik

The poetry, romantic adventures, and character ofLord Byron—characterized by his spurned loverLady Caroline Lambas "mad, bad and dangerous to know" —were another inspiration for the Gothic novel, providing the archetype of theByronic hero.For example, Byron is the title character in Lady Caroline's Gothic novelGlenarvon(1816).

Mary Shelley'sFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus(1818) has come to define Gothic fiction in the Romantic period. Frontispiece to 1831 edition shown.

Byron was also the host of the celebrated ghost-story competition involving himself,Percy Bysshe Shelley,Mary Shelley,andJohn William Polidoriat the Villa Diodati on the banks ofLake Genevain the summer of 1816. This occasion was productive of both Mary Shelley'sFrankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus(1818), and Polidori'sThe Vampyre(1819), featuring the ByronicLord Ruthven.The Vampyrehas been accounted by cultural critic Christopher Frayling as one of the most influential works of fiction ever written and spawned a craze forvampire fictionand theatre (and, latterly, film) that has not ceased to this day.Although clearly influenced by the Gothic tradition, Mary Shelley's novel is often considered the first science fiction novel, despite the novel's lack of any scientific explanation for the monster's animation and the focus instead on the moral dilemmas and consequences of such a creation.

John Keats'La Belle Dame sans Merci(1819) andIsabella, or the Pot of Basil(1820) feature mysteriously fey ladies.In the latter poem, the names of the characters, the dream visions, and the macabre physical details are influenced by the novels of premiere Gothicist Ann Radcliffe.

Although ushering in the historical novel, and turning popularity away from Gothic fiction,Walter Scottfrequently employed Gothic elements in his novels and poetry.Scott drew upon oral folklore, fireside tales, and ancient superstitions, often juxtaposing rationality and the supernatural. Novels such asThe Bride of Lammermoor(1819), in which the characters' fates are decided by superstition and prophecy, or the poemMarmion(1808), in which a nun is walled alive inside a convent, illustrate Scott's influence and use of Gothic themes.

A late example of a traditional Gothic novel isMelmoth the Wanderer(1820) byCharles Maturin,which combines themes of anti-Catholicism with an outcast Byronic hero.Jane C. Loudon'sThe Mummy!(1827) features standard Gothic motifs, characters, and plot, but with one significant twist; it is set in the twenty-second century and speculates on fantastic scientific developments that might have occurred three hundred years in the future, making it andFrankensteinamong the earliest examples of the science fiction genre developing from Gothic traditions.

During two decades, the most famous author of Gothic literature in Germany was the polymathE. T. A. Hoffmann.Lewis'sThe Monkinfluenced and even mentioned it in his novelThe Devil's Elixirs(1815). The novel explores the motive ofDoppelgänger,a term coined by another German author and supporter of Hoffmann,Jean-Paul,in his humorous novelSiebenkäs(1796–1797). He also wrote an opera based onFriedrich de la Motte Fouqué's Gothic storyUndine(1816), for which de la Motte Fouqué wrote the libretto.Aside from Hoffmann and de la Motte Fouqué, three other important authors from the era wereJoseph Freiherr von Eichendorff(The Marble Statue,1818),Ludwig Achim von Arnim(Die Majoratsherren,1819), andAdelbert von Chamisso(Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte,1814).After them,Wilhelm MeinholdwroteThe Amber Witch(1838) andSidonia von Bork(1847).

In Spain, the priestPascual Pérez Rodríguezwas the most diligent novelist in the Gothic way, closely aligned to the supernatural explained by Ann Radcliffe.At the same time, the poetJosé de EsproncedapublishedThe Student of Salamanca(1837–1840), a narrative poem that presents a horrid variation on theDon Juanlegend.

Viy, lord of the underworld, from thestory of the same nameby Gogol

In Russia, authors of the Romantic era includeAntony Pogorelsky(penname of Alexey Alexeyevich Perovsky),Orest Somov,Oleksa Storozhenko,Alexandr Pushkin,Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy,Mikhail Lermontov(for his workStuss), andAlexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky.Pushkin is particularly important, as his 1833 short storyThe Queen of Spadeswas so popular that it was adapted into operas and later films by Russian and foreign artists. Some parts of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov'sA Hero of Our Time(1840) are also considered to belong to the Gothic genre, but they lack the supernatural elements of other Russian Gothic stories.

The following poems are also now considered to belong to the Gothic genre: Meshchevskiy's "Lila", Katenin's "Olga",Pushkin's "The Bridegroom",Pletnev's "The Gravedigger" andLermontov'sDemon(1829–1839).

The key author of the transition from Romanticism to Realism,Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol,who was also one of the most important authors of Romanticism, produced a number of works that qualify as Gothic fiction. Each of his three short story collections features a number of stories that fall within the Gothic genre or contain Gothic elements. They include "Saint John's Eve"and"A Terrible Vengeance"fromEvenings on a Farm Near Dikanka(1831–1832), "The Portrait"fromArabesques(1835), and "Viy"fromMirgorod(1835). While all are well known, the latter is probably the most famous, having inspired at least eight film adaptations (two now considered lost), one animated film, two documentaries, and a video game. Gogol's work differs from Western European Gothic fiction, as his cultural influences drew onUkrainian folklore,theCossacklifestyle, and, as a religious man,Orthodox Christianity.

Other relevant authors of this era includeVladimir Fyodorovich Odoevsky(The Living Corpse,written 1838, published 1844,The Ghost,The Sylphide,as well as short stories),Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy(The Family of the Vourdalak,1839, andThe Vampire,1841),Mikhail Zagoskin(Unexpected Guests),Józef Sękowski/Osip Senkovsky(Antar), andYevgeny Baratynsky(The Ring).

Nineteenth-century Gothic fiction

See also:Penny dreadfulandAmerican Gothic fiction

Cover of aVarney the Vampirepublication, 1845

By theVictorian era,Gothic had ceased to be the dominant genre for novels in England, partly replaced by more sedate historical fiction. However, Gothic short stories continued to be popular, published in magazines or as smallchapbookscalledpenny dreadfuls.The most influential Gothic writer from this period was the AmericanEdgar Allan Poe,who wrote numerous short stories and poems reinterpreting Gothic tropes. His story "The Fall of the House of Usher"(1839) revisits classic Gothic tropes of aristocratic decay, death, and madness.Poe is now considered the master of the American Gothic.In England, one of the most influential penny dreadfuls is the anonymously authoredVarney the Vampire(1847), which introduced thetropeof vampires having sharpened teeth.Another notable English author of penny dreadfuls isGeorge W. M. Reynolds,known forThe Mysteries of London(1844),Faust(1846),Wagner the Wehr-wolf(1847), andThe Necromancer(1857).Elizabeth Gaskell's tales "The Doom of the Griffiths" (1858), "Lois the Witch", and "The Grey Woman" all employ one of the most common themes of Gothic fiction: the power of ancestral sins to curse future generations, or the fear that they will.M. R. James,an English medievalist whose stories are still popular today, is known as the originator of the "antiquarian ghost story." In Spain,Gustavo Adolfo Bécquerstood out with his romantic poems and short tales, some depicting supernatural events. Today some consider him the most-read Spanish writer afterMiguel de Cervantes.

Jane Eyre's trial through the moors inCharlotte Brontë'sJane Eyre(1847)

In addition to these short Gothic fictions, some novels drew on the Gothic.Emily Brontë'sWuthering Heights(1847) transports the Gothic to the forbidding Yorkshire Moors and features ghostly apparitions and a Byronic hero in the person of the demonic Heathcliff. The Brontës' fictions were cited by feminist criticEllen Moersas prime examples of Female Gothic, exploring woman's entrapment within domestic space and subjection to patriarchal authority and the transgressive and dangerous attempts to subvert and escape such restriction.Emily Brontë'sCathyandCharlotte Brontë'sJane Eyreare examples of female protagonists in such roles.Louisa May Alcott's Gothic potboiler,A Long Fatal Love Chase(written in 1866 but published in 1995), is also an interesting specimen of this subgenre. Charlotte Brontë'sVillettealso shows the Gothic influence, with its supernatural subplot featuring a ghostly nun, and its view ofRoman Catholicismas exotic and heathenistic.Nathaniel Hawthorne's novelThe House of the Seven Gables,about a family's ancestral home, is colored with suggestions of the supernatural and witchcraft; and in true Gothic fashion, it features the house itself as one of the main characters,

Miss Havishamfrom Dickens’Great Expectations

The genre also heavily influenced writers such asCharles Dickens,who read Gothic novels as a teenager and incorporated their gloomy atmosphere and melodrama into his works, shifting them to a more modern period and an urban setting; for example, inOliver Twist(1837–1838),Bleak House(1854) andGreat Expectations(1860–1861). These works juxtapose wealthy, ordered, and affluent civilization with the disorder and barbarity of the poor in the same metropolis.Bleak House,in particular, is credited with introducingurban fogto the novel, which would become a frequent characteristic of urban Gothic literature and film (Mighall 2007).Miss HavishamfromGreat Expectations,is one of Dickens’ most Gothic characters. The bitter recluse who shuts herself away in her gloomy mansion ever since being jilted at the altar on her wedding day.His most explicitly Gothic work is his last novel,The Mystery of Edwin Drood,which he did not live to complete and was published unfinished upon his death in 1870. The mood and themes of the Gothic novel held a particular fascination for the Victorians, with their obsession with mourning rituals,mementos,and mortality in general.

Irish Catholics also wrote Gothic fiction in the 19th century. Although some Anglo-Irish dominated and defined the subgenre decades later, they did not own it. Irish Catholic Gothic writers includedGerald Griffin,James Clarence Mangan,andJohnandMichael Banim.William Carletonwas a notable Gothic writer, and converted from Catholicism to Anglicanism.

In Switzerland,Jeremias GotthelfwroteThe Black Spider(1842), an allegorical work that uses Gothic themes. The last work from the German writerTheodor Storm,The Rider on the White Horse(1888), also uses Gothic motives and themes.

After Gogol, Russian literature saw the rise of Realism, but many authors continued to write stories within Gothic fiction territory.Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev,one of the most celebrated Realists, wroteFaust(1856),Phantoms(1864),Song of the Triumphant Love(1881), andClara Milich(1883). Another classic Russian Realist,Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky,incorporated Gothic elements into many of his works, although none can be seen as purely Gothic.Grigory Petrovich Danilevsky,who wrote historical and early science fiction novels and stories, wroteMertvec-ubiytsa(Dead Murderer) in 1879. Also,Grigori Alexandrovich Machtetwrote "Zaklyatiy kazak", which may now also be considered Gothic.

Robert Louis Stevenson'sStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde(1886) was a classic Gothic work of the 1880s, seeing many stage adaptations.

The 1880s saw the revival of the Gothic as a powerful literary form allied tofin de siecle,which fictionalized contemporary fears like ethical degeneration and questioned the social structures of the time. Classic works of thisUrban GothicincludeRobert Louis Stevenson'sStrange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(1886),Oscar Wilde'sThe Picture of Dorian Gray(1891),George du Maurier'sTrilby(1894),Richard Marsh'sThe Beetle(1897),Henry James'The Turn of the Screw(1898), and the stories ofArthur Machen.

In Ireland, Gothic fiction tended to be purveyed by theAnglo-IrishProtestant Ascendancy.According to literary criticTerry Eagleton,Charles Maturin,Sheridan Le Fanu,andBram Stokerform the core of theIrish Gothic subgenrewith stories featuring castles set in a barren landscape and a cast of remote aristocrats dominating anatavisticpeasantry, which represent an allegorical form the political plight ofCatholic Irelandsubjected to the Protestant Ascendancy.Le Fanu's use of the gloomy villain, forbidding mansion, and persecuted heroine inUncle Silas(1864) shows direct influence from Walpole'sOtrantoand Radcliffe'sUdolpho.Le Fanu's short story collectionIn a Glass Darkly(1872) includes the superlative vampire taleCarmilla,which provided fresh blood for that particular strand of the Gothic and influencedBram Stoker'svampirenovelDracula(1897). Stoker's book created the most famous Gothic villain ever,Count Dracula,and establishedTransylvaniaand Eastern Europe as thelocus classicusof the Gothic.Published in the same year asDracula,Florence Marryat'sThe Blood of the Vampireis another piece of vampire fiction.The Blood of the Vampire,which, likeCarmilla,features a female vampire, is notable for its treatment of vampirism as bothracialand medicalized. The vampire, Harriet Brandt, is also apsychic vampire,killing unintentionally.

In the United States, notable late 19th-century writers in the Gothic tradition wereAmbrose Bierce,Robert W. Chambers,andEdith Wharton.Bierce's short stories were in the horrific and pessimistic tradition of Poe. Chambers indulged in the decadent style of Wilde and Machen, even including a character named Wilde in hisThe King in Yellow(1895).Wharton published some notable Gothic ghost stories. Some works of the Canadian writerGilbert Parkeralso fall into the genre, including the stories inThe Lane that had No Turning(1900).

Le Horla(1887) byGuy de Maupassant

The serialized novelThe Phantom of the Opera(1909–1910) by the French writerGaston Lerouxis another well-known example of Gothic fiction from the early 20th century, when many German authors were writing works influenced bySchauerroman,includingHanns Heinz Ewers.

Russian Gothic

Until the 1990s, Russian Gothic critics did not view Russian Gothic as a genre or label. If used, the word "gothic" was used to describe (mostly early) works ofFyodor Dostoyevskyfrom the 1880s. Most critics used tags such as "Romanticism" and "fantastique",such as in the 1984 story collection translated into English asRussian 19th-Century Gothic Talesbut originally titledФантастический мир русской романтической повести,literally, "The Fantastic World of Russian Romanticism Short Story/Novella."However, since the mid-1980s, Russian gothic fiction as a genre began to be discussed in books such asThe Gothic-Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature,European Gothic: A Spirited Exchange 1760–1960,The Russian Gothic Novel and its British AntecedentsandGoticheskiy roman v Rossii (The Gothic Novel in Russia).

The first Russian author whose work has been described as gothic fiction is considered to beNikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin.While many of his works feature gothic elements, the first to belong purely under the gothic fiction label isOstrov Borngolm(Island of Bornholm) from 1793.Nearly ten years later,Nikolay Ivanovich Gnedichfollowed suit with his 1803 novelDon Corrado de Gerrera,set in Spain during the reign ofPhilip II.The term "Gothic" is sometimes also used to describe theballadsof Russian authors such asVasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky,particularly "Ludmila" (1808) and "Svetlana"(1813), both translations based onGottfreid August Burger's Gothic German ballad, "Lenore".

During the last years ofImperial Russiain the early 20th century, many authors continued to write in the Gothic fiction genre. They include the historian and historical fiction writerAlexander Valentinovich AmfiteatrovandLeonid Nikolaievich Andreyev,who developed psychological characterization; the symbolistValery Yakovlevich Bryusov,Alexander Grin,Anton Pavlovich Chekhov;andAleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin.Nobel Prize winnerIvan Alekseyevich BuninwroteDry Valley(1912), which is seen as influenced by Gothic literature.In a monograph on the subject, Muireann Maguire writes, "The centrality of the Gothic-fantastic to Russian fiction is almost impossible to exaggerate, and certainly exceptional in the context of world literature."

Twentienth-century Gothic fiction

See also:Pulp magazine

Mrs. Danversin the1940 film adaptationofDaphne du Maurier'sRebecca.The success ofRebeccainspired a revival of interest in Gothic romance in the 20th century

Gothic fiction andModernisminfluenced each other. This is often evident in detective fiction, horror fiction, and science fiction, but the influence of the Gothic can also be seen in the high literary Modernism of the 20th century.Oscar Wilde'sThe Picture of Dorian Gray(1890) initiated a re-working of older literary forms and myths that became common in the work ofW. B. Yeats,T. S. Eliot,James Joyce,Virginia Woolf,Shirley Jackson,andAngela Carter,among others.In Joyce'sUlysses(1922), the living are transformed into ghosts, which points to an Ireland in stasis at the time and a history of cyclical trauma from theGreat Faminein the 1840s through to the current moment in the text.The wayUlyssesuses Gothic tropes such as ghosts and hauntings while removing the supernatural elements of 19th-century Gothic fiction indicates a general form of modernist Gothic writing in the first half of the 20th century.

Pulp magazinessuch asWeird Talesreprinted and popularized Gothic horror from the previous century.

In America,pulp magazinessuch asWeird Talesreprinted classic Gothic horror tales from the previous century by authors like Poe,Arthur Conan Doyle,andEdward Bulwer-Lytton,and printed new stories by modern authors featuring both traditional and new horrors.The most significant of these wasH. P. Lovecraft,who also wrote a conspectus of the Gothic and supernatural horror tradition in hisSupernatural Horror in Literature(1936), and developed aMythosthat would influence Gothic and contemporary horror well into the 21st century. Lovecraft's protégé,Robert Bloch,contributed toWeird Talesand pennedPsycho(1959), which drew on the classic interests of the genre. From these, the Gothic genreper segave way to modernhorror fiction,regarded by some literary critics as a branch of the Gothic,although others use the term to cover the entire genre.

The Romantic strand of Gothic was taken up inDaphne du Maurier'sRebecca(1938), which is seen by some to have been influenced byCharlotte Brontë'sJane Eyre.Other books by du Maurier, such asJamaica Inn(1936), also display Gothic tendencies. Du Maurier's work inspired a substantial body of "female Gothics," concerning heroines alternately swooning over or terrified by scowlingByronic menin possession of acres of prime real estate and the appertainingdroit du seigneur.

Southern Gothic

Main article:Southern Gothic

The genre also influencedAmerican writing,creating aSouthern Gothicgenre that combines some Gothic sensibilities, such as thegrotesque,with the setting and style of the Southern United States. Examples includeErskine Caldwell,William Faulkner,Carson McCullers,John Kennedy Toole,Manly Wade Wellman,Eudora Welty,V. C. Andrews,Tennessee Williams,Truman Capote,Flannery O'Connor,Davis Grubb,Anne Rice,Harper Lee,andCormac McCarthy.

New Gothic romances

Mass-produced Gothic romances became popular in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s with authors such asPhyllis A. Whitney,Joan Aiken,Dorothy Eden,Victoria Holt,Barbara Michaels,Mary Stewart,Alicen White,and Jill Tattersall. Many featured covers show a terror-stricken woman in diaphanous attire in front of a gloomy castle, often with a single-lit window. Many were published under thePaperback LibraryGothic imprint and marketed to female readers. While the authors were mostly women, some men wrote Gothic romances under female pseudonyms: the prolific Clarissa Ross and Marilyn Ross were pseudonyms of the maleDan Ross;Frank Belknap Longpublished Gothics under his wife's name, Lyda Belknap Long; the British writerPeter O'Donnellwrote under the pseudonym Madeleine Brent. After the gothic romance boom faded away in the early 1990s, very few publishers embraced the term for mass market romance paperbacks apart from imprints like Love Spell, which was discontinued in 2010.However, in recent years the term "Gothic Romance" is being used to describe both old and new works of Gothic fiction.

Contemporary Gothic

For modern horror associated with the goth scene, seeGoth subculture § Books and magazines.

Gothic fiction continues to be extensively practised by contemporary authors.

Many modern writers of horror or other types of fiction exhibit considerable Gothic sensibilities – examples includeAnne Rice,Susan Hill,Billy Martin,Silvia Moreno-Garcia,Carmen Maria Machado,Neil Gaiman,andStephen King.Thomas M. Disch's novelThe Priest(1994) was subtitledA Gothic Romanceand partly modeled on Matthew Lewis'The Monk.Many writers such as Billy Martin, Stephen King,Brett Easton Ellis,andClive Barkerhave focused on the body's surface and blood's visuality.England'sRhiannon Wardis among the recent writers of Gothic fiction.Catriona Wardwon a British Fantasy Award for Best Horror Novel for her gothic novelRawbloodin 2016.

Contemporary American writers in the tradition includeJoyce Carol Oateswith such novels asBellefleurandA Bloodsmoor Romance,Toni Morrisonwith her radical novelBeloved,about a slave-woman whose murdered baby haunts her,Raymond Kennedywith his novelLulu Incognito,Donna Tarttwith her postmodern gothic horror novelThe Secret History,Ursula Vernonwith herEdgar Allan Poe-inspired novelWhat Moves the Dead,Danielle Trussoniwith her "gothic extravaganza"The Ancestor,and filmmakerAnna BillerwithBluebeard's Castle,a throwback to 18th-century Gothic novels and 1960s dime-store romances.British writers who have continued in the Gothic tradition includeSarah Waterswith her haunted house novelThe Little Stranger,Diane Setterfieldwith her quintessentially Gothic novelsThe Thirteenth TaleandOnce Upon a River,Helen Oyeyemiwith her experimental novelWhite is for Witching,Sarah Perrywith her novelsMelmothandThe Essex Serpent,andLaura Purcellwith her historical novelsThe Silent CompanionsandThe Shape of Darkness.

Several Gothic traditions have also developed in New Zealand (with the subgenre referred to as New Zealand Gothic orMaoriGothic)and Australia (known as Australian Gothic). These explore everything from the multicultural natures of the two countriesto their natural geography.Novels in the Australian Gothic tradition includeKate Grenville'sThe Secret Riverand the works ofKim Scott.An even smaller genre isTasmanian Gothic,set exclusively on the island, with prominent examples includingGould's Book of FishbyRichard FlanaganandThe Roving PartybyRohan Wilson.Another Australian author,Kate Morton,has penned several homages to classic gothic fiction, among themThe Distant HoursandThe House at Riverton.

Southern Ontario Gothicapplies a similar sensibility to a Canadian cultural context.Robertson Davies,Alice Munro,Barbara Gowdy,Timothy Findley,andMargaret Atwoodhave all produced notable exemplars of this form. Another writer in the tradition wasHenry Farrell,best known for his 1960 Hollywood horror novelWhat Ever Happened To Baby Jane?Farrell's novels spawned a subgenre of "Grande Dame Guignol" in the cinema, represented by such films asthe 1962 film based on Farrell's novel,which starredBette DavisversusJoan Crawford;this subgenre of films was dubbed the "psycho-biddy"genre.

Outside the English-speaking world,Latin American Gothicliterature has been gaining momentum since the first decades of the 21st century. Some of the main authors whose style has been described as Gothic areMaría Fernanda Ampuero,Mariana Enríquez,Fernanda Melchor,Mónica Ojeda,Giovanna Rivero,Michelle Roche-Rodríguez,andSamanta Schweblin.

The many Gothic subgenres include a new "environmental Gothic" or "ecoGothic". It is an ecologically aware Gothic engaged in "dark nature" and "ecophobia." Writers and critics of the ecoGothic suggest that the Gothic genre is uniquely positioned to speak to anxieties aboutclimate changeand the planet's ecological future.

Among the bestselling books of the 21st century, theYA novelTwilightbyStephenie Meyeris now increasingly identified as a Gothic novel, as isCarlos Ruiz Zafón's 2001 novelThe Shadow of the Wind.

Other media

Literary Gothic themes have been translated into other media.

There was a notable revival in 20th-centuryGothic horror cinema,such as the classicUniversal monstersfilms of the 1930s,Hammer Horrorfilms, andRoger Corman'sPoe cycle.

InHindi cinema,the Gothic tradition was combined with aspects ofIndian culture,particularly reincarnation, for an "Indian Gothic" genre, beginning withMahal(1949) andMadhumati(1958).

The 1960s Gothic television seriesDark Shadowsborrowed liberally from Gothic traditions, with elements like haunted mansions, vampires, witches, doomed romances, werewolves, obsession, and madness.

The early 1970s saw aGothic Romancecomic book mini-trend with such titles asDC Comics'The Dark Mansion of Forbidden LoveandThe Sinister House of Secret Love,Charlton Comics'Haunted Love,Curtis Magazines'Gothic Tales of Love,andAtlas/Seaboard Comics'one-shotmagazineGothic Romances.

Twentieth-century rock music also had its Gothic side.Black Sabbath's 1970debut albumcreated a dark sound different from other bands at the time and has been called the first-ever "goth-rock" record.

However, the first recorded use of "gothic" to describe a style of music was forThe Doors.Critic John Stickney used the term "gothic rock" to describe the music of The Doors in October 1967 in a review published inThe Williams Record.The album recognized as initiating the goth music genre isUnknown Pleasuresby the bandJoy Division.However, earlier bands such asThe Velvet Undergroundalso contributed to the genre's distinctive style. Themes from Gothic writers such asH. P. Lovecraftwere used amongGothic rockandheavy metalbands, especially inblack metal,thrash metal(Metallica'sThe Call of Ktulu),death metal,andgothic metal.For example, in his compositions, heavy metal musicianKing Diamonddelights in telling stories full of horror, theatricality,Satanism,andanti-Catholicism.

Inrole-playing games(RPG), the pioneering 1983Dungeons & DragonsadventureRavenloftinstructs the players to defeat the vampireStrahd von Zarovich,who pines for his dead lover. It has been acclaimed as one of the best role-playing adventures ever and even inspiredan entire fictional world of the same name.TheWorld of Darknessis a gothic-punk RPG line set in the real world, with the added element of supernatural creatures such aswerewolvesandvampires.In addition to its flagship titleVampire: The Masquerade,the game line features a number of spin-off RPGs such asWerewolf: The Apocalypse,Mage: The Ascension,Wraith: The Oblivion,Hunter: The Reckoning,andChangeling: The Dreaming,allowing for a wide range of characters in the gothic-punk setting.My Life with Masteruses Gothic horror conventions as a metaphor forabusive relationships,placing the players in the shoes of minions of a tyrannical, larger-than-life Master.

Variousvideo gamesfeature Gothic horror themes and plots. TheCastlevaniaseries typically involves a hero of the Belmont lineage exploring a dark, old castle, fighting vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's Creature, and other Gothic monster staples, culminating in a battle against Dracula himself. Others, such asGhosts 'n Goblins,feature a camper parody of Gothic fiction. 2017'sResident Evil 7: Biohazard,a Southern Gothic reboot to the survival horror video game involves an everyman and his wife trapped in a derelict plantation and mansion owned by a family with sinister and hideous secrets and must face terrifying visions of a ghostly mutant in the shape of a little girl. This was followed by 2021'sResident Evil Village,a Gothic horror sequel focusing on an action hero searching for his kidnapped daughter in a mysterious Eastern European village under the control of a bizarre religious cult inhabited by werewolves, vampires, ghosts, shapeshifters, and other monsters. TheDevil May Cryseries stands as an equally parodic and self-serious franchise, following the escapades, stunts and mishaps of series protagonistDanteas he explores dingy demonic castles, ancient occult monuments and ruined urban landscapes on his quest to avenge his mother and brother. Gothic literary themes appear all throughout the story, such as how the past physically creeps into the ambiguously modern setting, recurrent imagery of doubles (notably regarding Dante and histwin brother), and the persisting melodramas associated with Dante's father's fame, absence, and demonic heritage. Beginning withDevil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening,Female Gothic elements enter the series as deuteragonistLadyworks through her own revenge plot against her murderous father, with the oppressive and consistent emotional and physical abuse instigated by a patriarchal figure serving as a heavy, understated counterweight to the extravagance of the rest of the story. Finally,Bloodbornetakes place in the decaying Gothic city ofYharnam,where the player must face werewolves, shambling mutants, vampires, witches, and numerous other Gothic staple creatures. However, the game takes a marked turn midway shifting from gothic toLovecraftian horror.

Popular tabletop card gameMagic: The Gathering,known for itsparallel universeconsisting of "planes," features the plane known asInnistrad.Its general aesthetic is based on northeast European Gothic horror. Innistard's common residents include cultists, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and zombies.

Modern Gothic horror films includeSleepy Hollow,Interview with the Vampire,Underworld,The Wolfman,From Hell,Dorian Gray,Let the Right One In,The Woman in Black,Crimson Peak,The Little Stranger,andThe Love Witch.

The TV seriesPenny Dreadful(2014–2016) brings many classic Gothic characters together in a psychological thriller set in the dark corners of Victorian London.

The Oscar-winning Korean filmParasitehas also been called Gothic – specifically, Revolutionary Gothic.

Recently, theNetflixoriginalThe Haunting of Hill Houseand its successorThe Haunting of Bly Manorhave integrated classic Gothic conventions into modern psychological horror.

Scholarship

Educators in literary, cultural, and architectural studies appreciate the Gothic as an area that facilitates investigation of the beginnings of scientific certainty. AsCarol Senfhas stated, "the Gothic was... a counterbalance produced by writers and thinkers who felt limited by such a confident worldview and recognized that the power of the past, the irrational, and the violent continue to sway in the world."As such, the Gothic helps students better understand their doubts about the self-assurance of today's scientists. Scotland is the location of what was probably the world's first postgraduate program to consider the genre exclusively: the MLitt in the Gothic Imagination at theUniversity of Stirling,first recruited in 1996.

See also

• Aestheticism
• American Gothic fiction
• Decadent Movement
• Dark fantasy
• Eighteenth-century Gothic novel
• French Revolution and the English Gothic Novel
• Gaslamp fantasy
• Gothic film
• Gothic romance film
• Gothic Western
• Irish Gothic literature
• Latin American Gothic
• List of gothic fiction works
• List of Minerva Press authors
• Minerva Press
• Southern Gothic
• Southern Ontario Gothic
• Suburban Gothic
• Symbolism (arts)
• Tasmanian Gothic
• Urban Gothic
• Weird fiction
• Goth music
• Goth subculture

References

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External links

• Works related toGothic fictionat Wikisource
• Gothic Fiction at the British LibraryArchived25 May 2018 at theWayback Machine
• Key motifs in Gothic FictionArchived1 July 2017 at theWayback Machine– a British Library film
• Gothic Fiction Bookshelf at Project Gutenberg
• Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies
• Gothic author biographies
• The Gothic ImaginationArchived18 December 2017 at theWayback Machine
• "Gothic",In Our Time,BBC Radio 4 discussion with Chris Baldick, A.N. Wilson and Emma Clery (Jan. 4, 2001)