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Introduction
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Gothic Literature
For many, the genre of gothic horror is epitomised by the novels Frankenstein and Dracula. In this course, we explore the origins of the genre through lesser-known, but no less influential works, the Castle of Otranto (1764) and The Monk (1796): the former is generally regarded as the first gothic novel, and the latter (which was described by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as “the offspring of no common genius”) one of the most important gothic novels of its time - decades before Frankenstein, and over a century before Dracula.
Introduction
In this module, Elly argues why it's important that we recognise Gothic element in the literature we read, whether it be the traditional Gothic setting of a large, mysterious house or castle, or Gothic themes like the use of ghosts and the supernatural, or an exploration of the family or religion.
Hi, I'm Elly and this is the first of six modules looking at Gothic Literature.
00:00:03In this first module, I want to think about the point of looking at Gothic
00:00:07Literature. So why is it important to understand what we mean by the Gothic.
00:00:10So what's important to think about first, is that when text that you're studying for
00:00:16A level, you use Gothic themes which we'll talk about in a second,
00:00:19why are they doing that? So what I want to argue is that by invoking the Gothic in
00:00:24these texts, these texts are not just kind of depicting a haunted house or showing a
00:00:28monster. They're actually kind of tying into a whole host of literary and visual
00:00:32association that is really important to understand. And what is also important to
00:00:37understand for your reading, if you're writing about these texts is that these
00:00:41authors are doing it for a reason. So for example, if your studying Jane Eyre,
00:00:44you know, you think about - whole it's a very, kind of atmospheric,
00:00:48very quite Gothic building, quite dark, quite frightening in a way full of unknown
00:00:51and terrors. Why is Bronte doing that? You know, why has she chosen to depict - whole
00:00:56in that way? The same works with Wuthering Heights. Why is Wuthering Heights set in
00:01:01this very kind of dramatic Yorkshire Moors in this kind of very wild house?
00:01:05Why is Bronte giving her novel that setting? Something like Frankenstein,
00:01:10for example, if you think about what Shelley's doing that. Why is Shelley using
00:01:15the supernatural, bringing, kind of a man back from the dead, what is she trying to
00:01:19achieve by using this trope? So it's important to understand how
00:01:24the Gothic is involved throughout literature and throughout
00:01:28visual culture. To understand why the Gothic is so important to these texts and
00:01:31what these authors are trying to do through using the Gothic. And then,
00:01:35you could tie that into a whole host of things, why are they using particular
00:01:37types of language to invoke the Gothic? What does the setting mean?
00:01:41What does the characters mean? How does the Gothic affect how we can interpret
00:01:44those? So some of the themes we'll touch upon
00:01:47in this session, you might have encountered
00:01:49in any of your syllabus reading and I want to look at how they've developed
00:01:52throughout literature's or how the Gothic has come to be how we know it today.
00:01:56So some of this themes, for example might be madness, the supernatural,
00:01:59monsters, religion, Gothic is very anti-Catholic at times. You have ideas of
00:02:04life and death, and the blurring of this boundaries, the idea of kind of
00:02:12degeneration, all of these things are really important for Gothic Literature and
00:02:15I want to look at how they've come about.
00:02:19
Cite this Lecture
APA style
McCausland, E. (2018, August 15). Gothic Literature - Introduction [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/gothic-literature/cr4-frankenstein-close-reading-2
MLA style
McCausland, E. "Gothic Literature – Introduction." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 15 Aug 2018, https://massolit.io/courses/gothic-literature/cr4-frankenstein-close-reading-2