CONTEXT + COMPARATIVE DOCUMENT- THE GOTHIC
GIVING A TEXT A GOTHIC READING- SO ‘GOTHIC’ HAS TO BE ALL OVER IT! ,
LIKE A FEMINIST READING
COLONIALISM 18th century is post-colonialism, colonialism occurred and the
colonies in the US were established during the 17th and early 18th centuries .
- Bloody chamber comes from a state of flux,
- Dracula fin de siècle
- Frankenstein- the binary oppositions of light, dark, etc- religion and
science
STRUCTURE –
Intro
- Thesis statement
- Define any terms
- MACRO LINK TO THE GOTHIC
- Micro link to both texts
- Differential+ converge remember gothic reading on texts
4 paragraphs
- 1 text, then compare
- Text ref
- Analysis
- Gothic reading, then circle back to the point
Context, more ao3 from other literary movements+ context, however
remember to remain focused on the question
Take a literary interpretation and agree/disagree with it
- Compare this to the other text
- Overall summarise
X4
Conclusion
Make thesis statement again
State counter arguments
Bring it home and apply to the Gothic + use both texts on their difference+
converging qualities
PRACTICE QUESTIONS –
1
,2
,MACRO link – how the statement within the question applies to the GOTHIC- maybe
use quote?
Then micro link to nitty gritty details ‘ as a whole’ in both texts- briefly
Feminist readings- use RS
Gender trouble -Judith butler- heterosexism at the core of sexual difference
fundamentalism
Mary Daly- If God is Male then Male is God
Need a comparative,
3
, Gothic timeline –
Pre-gothic 1721-1763
- Can be argued that Gothic starts with Shakespeare, but the influence of the
Graveyard poets sparks the rise of he first gothic Novel e.g. Parnell’s ‘Night-
Piece on Death’ as an example of Graveyard poetry.
- Thomson’s seasons
- Smith’s Longinus on the Sublime
- ^pre gothic is a cocktail of the sublime and its philosophy, renewed interest in
medievalism, the expansion of empire+ need for national identity, gothic revival
in art, and fascination with ghosts.
Some important texts:
- Strawberry Hill, redone in 1750 Horace Walpole, his father was prime minister in
1721 ,
- Burke’s Sublime and Beautiful , 1757
- 1743- Blair’s ‘Grave’
Early Gothic 1764- 1788 ( ends 1 yr before the French revolution- early gothic springs
into high Gothic during the time of the French Rev. and inspired revolutions)
- Begins truly with Walpole’s Castle of Otranto in 1764- though the other major
novel to identify itself as Gothic is Reeve’s Old English Baron, 1777
- Gothic craze is not immediate
- Interest in the middle ages, and the taste for sentimental literature, proves
important in influence
Key Texts:
- 1783- the loss of American Colonies ( beginning of the post-colonial age)
- 1774- Goethe’s sorrows of young wether
- 1771- Mackenzie’s Man of Feeling
- Old English Baron – Reeve- 1777
- Reliques of Ancient English Poetry – 1765
High Gothic 1788-1839
Frankenstein – 1818
Gothic flourishes with Radcliffe, thirst for terror, partly inspired by revolutionary
events+ political trouble abroad/ at home
- Peaks in the early 1800s and falls away in the teens
Kahlert’s necromancer
Matthew Lewis’ The Monk
Lewis’ Castle Spectre
Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner
4
GIVING A TEXT A GOTHIC READING- SO ‘GOTHIC’ HAS TO BE ALL OVER IT! ,
LIKE A FEMINIST READING
COLONIALISM 18th century is post-colonialism, colonialism occurred and the
colonies in the US were established during the 17th and early 18th centuries .
- Bloody chamber comes from a state of flux,
- Dracula fin de siècle
- Frankenstein- the binary oppositions of light, dark, etc- religion and
science
STRUCTURE –
Intro
- Thesis statement
- Define any terms
- MACRO LINK TO THE GOTHIC
- Micro link to both texts
- Differential+ converge remember gothic reading on texts
4 paragraphs
- 1 text, then compare
- Text ref
- Analysis
- Gothic reading, then circle back to the point
Context, more ao3 from other literary movements+ context, however
remember to remain focused on the question
Take a literary interpretation and agree/disagree with it
- Compare this to the other text
- Overall summarise
X4
Conclusion
Make thesis statement again
State counter arguments
Bring it home and apply to the Gothic + use both texts on their difference+
converging qualities
PRACTICE QUESTIONS –
1
,2
,MACRO link – how the statement within the question applies to the GOTHIC- maybe
use quote?
Then micro link to nitty gritty details ‘ as a whole’ in both texts- briefly
Feminist readings- use RS
Gender trouble -Judith butler- heterosexism at the core of sexual difference
fundamentalism
Mary Daly- If God is Male then Male is God
Need a comparative,
3
, Gothic timeline –
Pre-gothic 1721-1763
- Can be argued that Gothic starts with Shakespeare, but the influence of the
Graveyard poets sparks the rise of he first gothic Novel e.g. Parnell’s ‘Night-
Piece on Death’ as an example of Graveyard poetry.
- Thomson’s seasons
- Smith’s Longinus on the Sublime
- ^pre gothic is a cocktail of the sublime and its philosophy, renewed interest in
medievalism, the expansion of empire+ need for national identity, gothic revival
in art, and fascination with ghosts.
Some important texts:
- Strawberry Hill, redone in 1750 Horace Walpole, his father was prime minister in
1721 ,
- Burke’s Sublime and Beautiful , 1757
- 1743- Blair’s ‘Grave’
Early Gothic 1764- 1788 ( ends 1 yr before the French revolution- early gothic springs
into high Gothic during the time of the French Rev. and inspired revolutions)
- Begins truly with Walpole’s Castle of Otranto in 1764- though the other major
novel to identify itself as Gothic is Reeve’s Old English Baron, 1777
- Gothic craze is not immediate
- Interest in the middle ages, and the taste for sentimental literature, proves
important in influence
Key Texts:
- 1783- the loss of American Colonies ( beginning of the post-colonial age)
- 1774- Goethe’s sorrows of young wether
- 1771- Mackenzie’s Man of Feeling
- Old English Baron – Reeve- 1777
- Reliques of Ancient English Poetry – 1765
High Gothic 1788-1839
Frankenstein – 1818
Gothic flourishes with Radcliffe, thirst for terror, partly inspired by revolutionary
events+ political trouble abroad/ at home
- Peaks in the early 1800s and falls away in the teens
Kahlert’s necromancer
Matthew Lewis’ The Monk
Lewis’ Castle Spectre
Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner
4
