Gothic Terms
General conventions:
● “about the return of the past, of the repressed and denied, the buried secret that
subverts and corrodes the present, whatever the culture does not want to know or
admit”- romanticised past
● Feature dark, abandoned, decayed settings, curses, prophecies, hauntings, insanity,
psychological flips and twists, damsels in distress, women as victims, doppelgängers,
fallen societies
● Plot -revenge, familial secrets, prophecies, and curses. The past is somehow still
living, breathing, and controlling the drama.
● Supernatural
● Sexual liberation
● Reliance on symbolism
In response to former realism- does not strive to reflect everyday life through a single
character’s internal drama. Gothic is more elaborate and ornate whereas former
realism aims to educate the reader.
● Feature real people in unreal situations
Character Archetypes:
● Vampire:
○ 1718- Austrians take possession of the Serbian/ Romanian area of the
Ottoman Empire + encounter folk superstitions and folk tales about vampires.
○ 1732- Official in Serbia leaked reports to Nurnberg- result in books and
articles written regarding vampires
○ 3 main vampire features: undead look like normal people, suck blood to get
victims life force, they are contagious.
○ Stories emerged in the Enlightenment + taken seriously by professionals (e.g.
magistrates, medics and officials)- produce documents proving existence.
Dracula can be compared to Polidori’s/ Lord Byron's “The Vampyre” which
presented the vampire as an established Lord in London. Presents a sexual
predator vampire who is a member of the aristocracy.
● Anti-heroes- Gothic protagonists are often portrayed as flawed, lonesome, isolated,
or outcast figures who have to overcome obstacles in order to rejoin society.
● Villain- Dark, mysterious, alluring villain. Gothic villains often pose as innocents or
victims.
● Hero-Villain. A Gothic bad guy has a sympathetic background and past that readers
stop thinking in simple terms of black and white. He becomes a hybrid between bad
and good.
Types of Gothic:
High gothic:
● 1760’s to 1810’s
● Started with Horace Walpoles the Castle of Otranto
● Last major high gothic book was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
● Reaction to cool rationalism of the Enlightenment,Violence of the French Revolution,
burgeoning concerns of romanticism and other factors.
, ● Usually romance, historical, comment on Catholicism (Superstition, sinister),
decaying aristocracy, supernatural, weird sex stuff (related to death / violence),
isolated settings, very macabre (gruesome), creepy and uncanny vibes, extreme
Weather, safe/familiar undermined and made unfamiliar.
Male gothic
● Regarded as the true gothic
● Supernatural is not clarified by ordinary or natural cause, so novels end mysteriously
● Has disruptive gender patterns, graphic horror and women as a “sexual and
emotional” vehicle
● Uses damsel and distress trope and women are objects of sexual attraction and
violence sex for pleasure
● E.g. Maid in Jekyll and Hyde, Dracula, The Monk
Female gothic
● Text written by women
● uses trope of undermining power to discuss the female experience and weird and
violent sex used for commentary rather than pleasure
● The Italian- Ann Radcliffe
Feminist gothic
● Socialise and educate female readers
● Express female independence and criticise patriarchy and objectification of women
● Patriarchy was villainized as a codified protest against women suffering within the
institutions of marriage, maternity and female embodiment itself.
● Women in the story often endure objectification, abuse and violence to show
conditions and experiences of women within the patriarchy.
● The “abodes of horror” used in gothic texts (e.g. castle or abbey) act as a metaphor
for women's incarceration, both domestic and otherwise
● Uses supernatural elements
● Prominent in late 18th and early 19th century by Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, the
Brontes and Christina Rossetti
● E.g. Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Little Stranger
New England Gothic
● 19th century American genre
● Set in rural areas in the Salem witch trials / Puritanism which left a cultural mark
● New England very macabre
Imperial Gothic
● Expresses anxiety about religious orthodoxy and suggests that people can easily
revert to barbaric and savage ways, forgetting British Imperial hegemony
● Began in late 19th century
● Connotations of being gloomy, brutal and feature tyrannical men.
● E.g. The Phantom Rickshaw, King Solomon’s Mines.
● Expressing anxiety about the dangers of maintaining the same religious beliefs?
Urban Gothic
General conventions:
● “about the return of the past, of the repressed and denied, the buried secret that
subverts and corrodes the present, whatever the culture does not want to know or
admit”- romanticised past
● Feature dark, abandoned, decayed settings, curses, prophecies, hauntings, insanity,
psychological flips and twists, damsels in distress, women as victims, doppelgängers,
fallen societies
● Plot -revenge, familial secrets, prophecies, and curses. The past is somehow still
living, breathing, and controlling the drama.
● Supernatural
● Sexual liberation
● Reliance on symbolism
In response to former realism- does not strive to reflect everyday life through a single
character’s internal drama. Gothic is more elaborate and ornate whereas former
realism aims to educate the reader.
● Feature real people in unreal situations
Character Archetypes:
● Vampire:
○ 1718- Austrians take possession of the Serbian/ Romanian area of the
Ottoman Empire + encounter folk superstitions and folk tales about vampires.
○ 1732- Official in Serbia leaked reports to Nurnberg- result in books and
articles written regarding vampires
○ 3 main vampire features: undead look like normal people, suck blood to get
victims life force, they are contagious.
○ Stories emerged in the Enlightenment + taken seriously by professionals (e.g.
magistrates, medics and officials)- produce documents proving existence.
Dracula can be compared to Polidori’s/ Lord Byron's “The Vampyre” which
presented the vampire as an established Lord in London. Presents a sexual
predator vampire who is a member of the aristocracy.
● Anti-heroes- Gothic protagonists are often portrayed as flawed, lonesome, isolated,
or outcast figures who have to overcome obstacles in order to rejoin society.
● Villain- Dark, mysterious, alluring villain. Gothic villains often pose as innocents or
victims.
● Hero-Villain. A Gothic bad guy has a sympathetic background and past that readers
stop thinking in simple terms of black and white. He becomes a hybrid between bad
and good.
Types of Gothic:
High gothic:
● 1760’s to 1810’s
● Started with Horace Walpoles the Castle of Otranto
● Last major high gothic book was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
● Reaction to cool rationalism of the Enlightenment,Violence of the French Revolution,
burgeoning concerns of romanticism and other factors.
, ● Usually romance, historical, comment on Catholicism (Superstition, sinister),
decaying aristocracy, supernatural, weird sex stuff (related to death / violence),
isolated settings, very macabre (gruesome), creepy and uncanny vibes, extreme
Weather, safe/familiar undermined and made unfamiliar.
Male gothic
● Regarded as the true gothic
● Supernatural is not clarified by ordinary or natural cause, so novels end mysteriously
● Has disruptive gender patterns, graphic horror and women as a “sexual and
emotional” vehicle
● Uses damsel and distress trope and women are objects of sexual attraction and
violence sex for pleasure
● E.g. Maid in Jekyll and Hyde, Dracula, The Monk
Female gothic
● Text written by women
● uses trope of undermining power to discuss the female experience and weird and
violent sex used for commentary rather than pleasure
● The Italian- Ann Radcliffe
Feminist gothic
● Socialise and educate female readers
● Express female independence and criticise patriarchy and objectification of women
● Patriarchy was villainized as a codified protest against women suffering within the
institutions of marriage, maternity and female embodiment itself.
● Women in the story often endure objectification, abuse and violence to show
conditions and experiences of women within the patriarchy.
● The “abodes of horror” used in gothic texts (e.g. castle or abbey) act as a metaphor
for women's incarceration, both domestic and otherwise
● Uses supernatural elements
● Prominent in late 18th and early 19th century by Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, the
Brontes and Christina Rossetti
● E.g. Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Little Stranger
New England Gothic
● 19th century American genre
● Set in rural areas in the Salem witch trials / Puritanism which left a cultural mark
● New England very macabre
Imperial Gothic
● Expresses anxiety about religious orthodoxy and suggests that people can easily
revert to barbaric and savage ways, forgetting British Imperial hegemony
● Began in late 19th century
● Connotations of being gloomy, brutal and feature tyrannical men.
● E.g. The Phantom Rickshaw, King Solomon’s Mines.
● Expressing anxiety about the dangers of maintaining the same religious beliefs?
Urban Gothic
