Gothic Revival Section
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A short History of Gothic Literature
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I'll be honest here, I'm not a lit major and have no certifications to produce, I just happen to read a lot and enjoy good material. I know there are many sites on the net which could do a bang-up job at a professional level, and if that is what you are looking for I may have some sites you're interested in later on. This site is not meant to fill that void...this is a layman's site, a fan site if you will. Consider this an overview rather than a scholarly discussion on the topic as I do not attempt to represent myself as a scholar or a credentialed authority.
That being said, lets move on shall we?
When we discuss gothic literature, we are primarily referring to English literature (and in later periods American Literature). Of course it's not just novels, we are also referring to poetry and to a specific phenom from a specific period of time known as "the Penny Dreadful." (The real name for that genre is "Trade Gothic").
The 18th Century
This is pretty much when it all began. People who know what they are talking about say the first gothic novel was Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1765). While this novel moves much faster and with less suspense than today's version of the gothic, there were some things that have been imitated in future works and eventually they came to define the gothic novel. These were the remote setting, supernatural, and medieval references. It was very popular at the time. It was called a gothic novel due to it's setting rather than it's ambience, however the ambience stuck just as much as the setting.
Ambience became more important as the style progressed and we see this in probably the most popular novelist in the 18th century - Ann Radcliffe. She was a master at manipulating the mood, adding deliciously horrible villains and creating suspense. Her best known novels are A Sicilian Romance (1790), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), and The Italian (1797).
The gothic branched out in style with the works of Matthew Lewis, whose novel The Monk depicted the horrible acts and eventual fall of it's characters. There seemed to be some sort of professional argument between Lewis and Radcliffe which came from a different approach to their fiction. A distinction made between a terror gothic (represented by Radcliffe) and the horror gothic (represented by Lewis) live to this day and while you will find people who enjoy both of them, in general one style will be preferred over the other. I personally gravitate toward the terror gothic, to the point where even in movies I'd much rather see a suspense thriller than a bloody gore flick.
19th Century
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published in 1818. She was attempting to write a terror novel but this has also been called the first science fiction novel. She created the idea of the mad scientist and the archetypal monster. In 1820, Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer was published. Some people regard this as the last of the Classic Gothic novels. It was a tale of mystery and terror, placing his main character Melmoth in an interesting spiritual and psychological predicament.
For most of us Melmoth the Wanderer was not the last of Gothic fiction, though it may be the last of the supposed pure classical form. The themes of the earliest works continued to appear into the 19th century.
The modern "ghost story" developed at this time progressing from simplistic apparitions which exist merely to frighten characters in the story to those who act and behave with personal emotion and purpose.
We also find Edgar Allan Poe writing during this time. He added elements of detective fiction, continued the theme of science fiction and liked to poke around in the subconscious mind of his characters. His work transformed Gothic fiction into a more complex offering than a simple terror or horror read.
20th Century
The emphasis on the horror aspect of gothic fiction was strong in the early part of the century, probably due to emotional fallout from WW1, then the terror/suspense aspect re-emerged in the mid 1900s. In addition we have the addition of the "Modern Gothic" which evolved into what we typically call "Gothic Romance." The general pattern here is that there is an innocent heroine who finds herself in some sort of trouble and she must be rescued by her suitor, who has a dark element to his personality. He could have a chequered past, be psychologically unstable, or possibly be a vampire or werewolf. The heroine must decide whether to risk the relationship with this person. The style progressed from Modern to Romance with the addition of more emotional and sensual elements and both types exist currently.
The Southern Gothic also emerges during this time with the works of William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor and Truman Capote and we see elements of the gothic literary form in other writings such as those of Dickens, Bronte and Scott and we also see the influence of gothic literature in modern media, such as movies.
