The Gothic Novel: Origins, Influences, and Characteristics, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Inglese

Scarica The Gothic Novel: Origins, Influences, and Characteristics e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE GOTHIC NOVEL THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME It came to popularity at the end of the 18th century The adjective ‘Gothic’ three connotations: - Medieval, linked to the architecture of the 12th-14th centuries - Irregular, barbarous, opposed to Classicism - Wild, supernatural, in the sense of mysterious INFLUENCES: The 18th- century society: Industrial exploitation —> Destruction of the single human being, Man as a slave to forces he could not control,Gothic symbols as denunciation of social problems. The sublime: As a celebration of terror; As a rejection of constraints and limits; As exploration of forbidden areas. THE GOTHIC SETTING - Great importance given to terror, characterised by obscurity and uncertainty, and horror, caused by evil and atrocity; - Darkness, a necessary ingredient for the mysterious, gloomy atmosphere. - Ancient settings isolated castles and mysterious abbeys with hidden passages, underground cellars, secret rooms. - Catholic countries as the setting for the most terrible crimes, due to Protestant prejudices against Catholicism. THE CHARACTERS - Characters dominated by exaggerated reactions in front of mysterious situations or events - Supernatural beings: vampires, monsters and ghosts. - Sensitive heroes: they save heroines. - Heroines stricken by unreal terrors and persecuted by the villains. - Satanic, terrifying male characters, victims of their negative impulses THE LANGUAGE Gothic writers chose vocabulary that referred to emotions and feelings, capable of evoking anxiety, fear or horror. METONIMY Metonymy: a subtype of metaphor, in which something is used to stand for something else. The following metonymies for doom and gloom suggest elements of mystery, danger, or the supernatural and are common in Gothic novels. FIRST GOTHIC AUTHORS • Horace Walpole ➔ The Castle of Otranto (1764) • Ann Radcliffe ➔ The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) • Matthew Lewis ➔The Monk (1796) • Mary Shelley➔ Frankenstein (1818) POPULARITY Great interest during the 18th century common to all strata of society. The features of Gothic novels preserved in modern and contemporary descendents of this genre in the works of: Charlotte Brontë; Edgar Allan Poe; Robert Louis Stevenson; Bram Stoker.