THE GOTHIC NOVEL DEFINITION Gothic novel is a
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THE GOTHIC NOVEL
DEFINITION • Gothic novel is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death and at times, romance.
HISTORY • Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. It originated in England in the second half of the 18 th century and had much success in the 19 th century. Other important gothic novels are Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Why did the gothic novel succeed? • Gothic fiction began as a sophisticated joke. The first gothic story was "The Castle of Otranto", published by Horacle Walpole in 1764. Walpole had discovered a fictional territory that hadn't been exploited yet, so in his novels he began to include characteristics like: the supernatural, the discovery of mysterious elements and frightening buildings. People really love this type of novel and so more gothic novels appeared.
Characteristics of the gothic novel • Gothic novels focus on the mysterious and supernatural. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses rather mysterious circumstances to have Victor Frankenstein create the monster: the cloudy circumstances under which Victor gathers body parts for his experiments and the use of little known modern technologies for unnatural purposes. Shelley employs the supernatural elements of raising the dead and macabre research into unexplored fields of science unknown to most readers. Gothic novels also take place in gloomy settings and far away places that seem mysterious to the reader and function as part of the Gothic novel's setting.
Gothic novel in 19 th Century • Gothic fiction, is a genre of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. It originated in England in the second half of the 18 th Century and was successful in the 19 th Century, as witnessed by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Another well known novel in this genre, dating from the late Victorian era, is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The name Gothic refers to the (pseudo)-medieval buildings, emulating Gothic architecture, in which many of these stories take place. This extreme form of romanticism was very popular in England Germany. The English Gothic novel also led to new novel types such as the German Schauerroman and the French Georgia.
