GOTHIC NOVELS
THE SUBLIME "Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling" (Burke)
According to Burke the sources of the sublime can be: #
Terror
Obscurity
Power
Privation
Vastness
Infinity
Difficulty
WHEN
Gothic novels gained popularity in the late 18th century
Horace Walpole wrote the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, in 1764
Fashionable throughout the 19th century
Influenced more modern genres such a ghost and horror stories
NAME
The adjective "Gothic" for novels may refer to the (pseudo)-medieval buildings, emulating Gothic architecture, in which many of these stories take place
Walpole was the first to use "Gothic novel" as a subtitle for his Castle of Otranto #
WHAT
Importance given to terror (from obscurity and uncertainty)
Complex plots
Importance given to horror (from evil and atrocity)
Ancient settings (isolated castles, mysterious abbeys, convents)
Presence of supernatural beings (monsters, ghosts, witches)
The adjective "Gothic" was first used disparagingly to refer to late Medieval cathedrals (as a synonym of "barbarian")
Gothic architecture was revived in the late 18th century
Heroines dominated by exaggerated passions
Honourable, sensitive heroes, who save the heroines
Villains who are terrifying male characters victims of their negative impulses
Night setting
Frankenstein is an example of "Gothic novel with a difference"