Definition of gothic literature11/8/2022 ![]() ![]() a haunting, a possession, an invasion, a curse or omen, etc. The main source of terror in supernatural horrors is the human reaction to being faced with the unknown, usually in the midst of a serious conflict-i.e. Supernatural HorrorĪ supernatural horror is work of fiction that relies heavily on supernatural or paranormal elements to drive the story, featuring things like ghosts, monsters, demons, aliens, witchcraft, zombies, and so on. Examples include novels like Dracula, Frankenstein, and Dr. Gothic horrors stories are written both with and without supernatural elements, but are always mysterious in nature. Its style combines the artistic pleasures of Romantic literature with the frightening elements of horror, making it terrifying in a seductive and pleasing way. Gothic horror, also known as gothic fiction or gothic fantasy, is a dark style of fiction that combines horror and Romanticism. #Definition of gothic literature fullLastly, the setting-an old and likely haunted mansion, darkness, the full moon-helps to accomplish the feeling of foreboding in the situation. Second, there is an emphasis on the fact that the main character will be continuing his task alone, which is never comforting. He took one last glance out the door before shutting out the light of the full moon, enclosing himself in complete darkness, with only the sound of his racing, terrified thoughts.įirst, example above uses words and phrases that create a creepy, unsettling air- rattling bones, rats, whispers, oozing, and so on. He only had to spend one hour in the house and he would prove to his friends that he wasn’t afraid. Example 1Īs the teenage boy stepped into the old mansion, his friends cackling behind him, he thought he could hear things that, he forced himself to believe, were in his head-rattling bones, scurrying rats, hushed whispers…and the slow drip, drip, drip, coming from a spot he told himself wasn’t really there the red, oozing stain in the ceiling boards above. Horror should make the reader feel afraid through imagery and language. ![]() Horror feeds on audience’s deepest terrors by putting life’s most frightening and perplexing things-death, evil, supernatural powers or creatures, the afterlife, witchcraft-at the center of attention. Horror literature has roots in religion, folklore, and history focusing on topics, fears, and curiosities that have continuously bothered humans in both the 12 th and 21 st centuries alike. The term’s definition emphasizes the reaction caused by horror, stemming from the Old French orror, meaning “to shudder or to bristle.” For a fuller account, consult Fred Botting, Gothic (1996).In literature, horror (pronounced hawr-er) is a genre of fiction whose purpose is to create feelings of fear, dread, repulsion, and terror in the audience-in other words, it develops an atmosphere of horror. See also fantastic, horror story, preromanticism. A popular modern variety of women's romance dealing with endangered heroines in the manner of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847) and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1938) is also referred to as Gothic. In an extended sense, many novels that do not have a medievalized setting, but which share a comparably sinister, grotesque, or claustrophobic atmosphere, have been classed as Gothic: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) is a well-known example and there are several important American tales and novels with strong Gothic elements in this sense, from Poe to Faulkner and beyond. The fashion for such works, ridiculed by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey (1818), gave way to a vogue for historical novels, but it contributed to the new emotional climate of Romanticism. #Definition of gothic literature freeLewis in The Monk (1796), made free use of ghosts and demons along with scenes of cruelty and horror. ![]() She was careful to explain away the apparently supernatural occurrences in her stories, but other writers, like M. Following the appearance of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764), the Gothic novel flourished in Britain from the 1790s to the 1820s, dominated by Ann Radcliffe, whose Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) had many imitators. A story of terror and suspense, usually set in a gloomy old castle or monastery (hence ‘Gothic’, a term applied to medieval architecture and thus associated in the 18th century with superstition). ![]()
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