JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755

Gothic Genesis: An Overview

Aadil Zeffer Ph.D. Scholar, Department of English, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, Punjab, India. Email: [email protected]

Dr. Vani Khurrana Assistant Professor, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, Punjab, India. Email: [email protected]

Abstract:

The is a style of writing which is characterized by certain elements like death, gloom, horror and high emotions such as fear and suspense. Sometimes the Gothic literature deals with abnormal states of mind, which is not a phenomenon of only or modernism rather it finds relevance today as well. Gothic literature originates from several aspects like artistic precedents, history or culture. It is said to be born in the second half of eighteenth century, precisely, 1764. It flourished in the nineteenth century and have relevance even today.

Keywords: Gothic fiction, horror, history, relevance. Introduction: The word ‘Goth’ described the Germanic tribes who sacked and ravaged ancient Rome and certain parts of Europe in third, fourth and fifth centuries and from here ‘Gothic’ came to mean barbarous. The word can be defined in other ways also such as a building that has a different architecture like arches, high vaulted ceiling etc.which was prevalent in Europe between the 12th to 16th centuries. The word is also used to describe adventurous or mysterious stories which usually happen in dark and lonely places. Thirdly, Gothic is also sometimes referred as an ornate style of writing. Horace Walpole, first used the term Gothic in his 1795 novel, The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story, and from here, descended a literary genre (Gothic) which is still in vogue today. Even the title itself gives us a certain hint of a gothic element. Gothic fiction is said to be born in the second half of eighteenth century, precisely, 1764. It flourished in the nineteenth century and have relevance even today. The setting is very important in Gothic literature as it evokes an atmosphere of dread and horror and there is a sort of archetype, a pattern to the characterization of a Gothic hero. Then comes the villain, who is a paragon of evil and the action usually takes place in or around an old castle which

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most of the times seem abandoned. The castle often contains dark rooms, hidden staircases, secret passages, trapdoors and ruined sections which lends its own haunting flavor, an experience of claustrophobia and mystery. As we know, Gothic work is pervaded by fear and a threatening feeling. Most of the times, the plot itself is woven around a mystery, such as disappearance, inanimate objects coming to life, walking of ghost or some other inexplicable element. Then there is some role of prophecies which is usually confusing or obscure. The characters have dream visions which are seen as a portent of coming events. Bloodletting, crying, emotional speeches, high emotions, which means that the narration may be highly sentimental. The metonymy of gloom and horror as the Gothic elements suggest some element of mystery or the supernatural. For instance, blowing rain, clanking chains, crazed laughter, eerie sounds, howling wind, doors grating on rusty hinges, footsteps approaching, doors suddenly getting shut and the ruins of buildings. Generally speaking, Gothic exaggerates the darker side of the human psyche, and outwardly, it presents the thought which may linger in the back of one’s mind. The Gothic literature represents the existence of the darker aspects of life. A Brief History of Gothic Literature: Initially, the settings in Gothic fiction were that of Eastern Europe, as this part of Europe was not that much explored and known. Due to its remoteness people had little information contrary to the Western Europe, which was more civilized and known. Gothic as a concept originated in Europe. Literature in the 16th century was not created in isolation from the thought currents in the social sphere. Writers such as Edmund Spenser (1552-1559), Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), and William Shakespeare (1564-1616), thought about the magical power of art which could be associated with civility or virtue but it could also have the demonic qualities as in the work of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (1592). The seventeenth century was a time of intense trouble in almost all areas of life, be it domestic relations, culture, politics, religion or science. The great poems like Spenser’s Faerie Queen (1590) and Paradise Lost (1667) deal with the Fall of Man and its tragic consequences. Gothic as a genre took its birth in the 18th century, developed in the and continues to prosper even today. A brief survey of the Gothic fiction is given as under: Gothicism in different Literatures: Gothic literature originates from several aspects like artistic precedents, history or culture. The Gothic tradition developed in the Romantic literature. In the eighteenth century, the theological, political and social landscape of Europe changed, which served as a stimulus for the Gothic movement. The Gothic narratives composed during the eighteenth century were greatly a response to anxiety, brought about by events like the French Revolution, thus bringing an overall change in the social and political structure of the society. The Gothic literature depicted fears and horrors about what could be lost and

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what could go wrong, in case the desired changes are not brought about. Through these narratives, writers can express the anxiety generated by the political and social disorders. Therefore to increase the participation of the society and wish for a change becomes a need. In the Romantic era, many prominent writers contributed to the Gothic tradition, which includes (1795-1821), (1778-1824), (1797-1851), (1792-1822), and S.T. Coleridge (1772-1834), William Godwin (1756-1836) and others. Since its inception, the Gothic genre has undergone various adaptations and changes and has played an important role in depicting evil and darkest fears of human society. The credit for founding the Gothic novel goes to English writers. Ann Radcliff (1764-1823), Horace Walpole (1717-1797), C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) and Sir Walter Scot (1771-1832) wrote the finest Gothic novels and their works showed the Gothic sensibility. On the other hand, writers such as (1789-1851), (1809-1849) and Charles Brown (1922-1999), developed the American Gothic tradition. English Gothic Literature: In Christopher Marlowe’s (1564-1593) play, Doctor Faustus (1604), we find several elements of Gothic tradition like supernaturalism, ghosts and angels. Clarissa (1748) by Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) narrates the tragic story of its central character (heroine). Horace Walpole (1717-1797) is widely recognized as an important figure in Gothic fiction. His The Castle of Otranto (1764) introduced the introduction of mystery and supernaturalism and is generally regarded as the first Gothic novel in English. William Godwin (1756-1836) is an important contributor to the Gothic tradition through his work Things As They Are: or The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) The novel borrowed heavily from the Gothic fiction of the day. ’s (1757-1827) wrote Songs of Experience through the Gothic style of darkness. William Beckford’s (1760-1844) Vathek (1787) is also considered as an important contribution to the Gothic tradition. Next comes Joanna Baillie (1762-1851), who has written many Gothic works. For example, her novel, Witchcraft (1836) uses the Gothic to assess the values and morals of her time. An important writer in the Gothic tradition is Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823). Through her novels, she explored the psychology of fear and suspense. Her novel The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), contains the classic Gothic elements like hidden secrets, a troubled heroine and a haunted castle. Some critics consider her as the queen of Gothic novel. James Hogg (1770-1835) a well known Scottish novelist, whose The Private Memories and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) feature Gothic and supernatural elements. Sir (1771-1832) exhibit a number of affinities to the Gothic literary mode. His The Pirate (1822) is an example in this direction. About Matthew Lewis Gregory (1775-1818), it is said that If Ann Radcliffe is a paragon of ‘female Gothic’, Lewis will be its form. The horror novel, The Monk (1796) by Lewis created a genteel of sensation and suspense.’s (1780-1824) novel, Melmoth the

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Wanderer (1820) is praised for its graphic description of suffering and horror and is considered as a fine example of Gothic fiction. Jane Austen’s (1795-1817) Northanger Abbey (1818) is also studied an important part of Gothic tradition. Mary Shelley’s (1797-1851) gothic novel Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (1818) is recognized as a work of philosophical and psychological resonance. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) an English novelist, who loved the Gothic tradition. His novels Bleak House (1853), The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), Little Dorrit (1857) Great Expectations (1861), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) and Mutual Friend (1865) come under the Gothic domain. Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), a skillful novelist, whose works Jane Eyre (1847) and Villette (1853) , depict the struggles of every day life and contain certain gothic elements such as mystery and the supernatural. Emily Bronte’s (1818-1848) novel, Wuthering Heights (1847) contain the mystery and horror of a Gothic novel, which brought her recognition. Willkie Collins (1824-1889) is known for intrigue and suspense. In his novel, Antonina, Collins used the Gothic recast history in this tale. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s (1814-1873) novels and short stories use elements of dread and horror. His short story collections Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery (1851) and In a Glass Darkly (1872) are widely acknowledged to be gothic in nature. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) known for his work, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) which is considered as an important contribution to Gothic literature. Bram Stoker (1847-1912), known for his frequently cited horror work, Dracula (1897). Joseph Conrad’s (1857- 1924) novel Heart of Darkness (1899) and his short story “The Inn of the Two Witches” (1915) gives us a fair idea about his acquaintance with the Gothic fiction. European Gothic Literature: Gothic fiction is also rich in European literatures, a brief highlight is given here: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832) a German writer, whose drama Faust is regarded as a great Gothic work of the 19th century. Ernst Theodor Wilthelm Hoffmann Amadeus (1776-1822) another German novelist, known for his bizarre, fantastic and Gothic fiction writing. Next comes a French novelist and playwright, (1802-1885). His Claude Gueux which appeared in 1834, is a story about a real life murderer and an important part of Gothic tradition. American Gothic Literature: During the period of 1765, The United States of America realised the fact that the production of great literature was of utmost importance to prove a nation’s greatness. Bryant (1794-1878), Irving (1783- 1859) and Cooper (1789-1851) happened to be the first writers of American Classics. While America was the new found land, its authors had to take lessons from the European writers. In this way, the European Gothic was exported to America. Eventually America produced writers like Edgar Alan Poe (1809-1849), Ernst Hemingway (1899-1961), Henry James (1843-1916), Mark Twain (1835-

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1919), (1804-1864), William Faulkner (1897-1962) and Walt Whitman (1819- 1892). In 18th century, the writers and philosophers wondered about the pleasurable effects of horror. There was an increasing taste for desolated scenery and melancholy. The Gothic literature presented the darker side of the life, bred by the Age. The British fiction succeeded in influencing the American fiction. The American fiction used Gothic traditions to present the vision of a lost and chaotic world. Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810), well known for his novels like Edgar Huntly (1799), Ormond (1799) and Merwin. He is remembered as the first American novelist, responsible for “Americanizing” the Gothic. (1783-1859), who explored various genres and wrote stories which incorporated Gothic elements. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is considered as an important figure of American fiction . His strange tales of death guilt and isolation reflect the dark vision of human nature. His highly symbolic novels like The Marble Faun (1860) and The Scarlet Letter (1850) contain Gothic elements. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) a well known figure in the domain of short stories. “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Black Cat”, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “William Wilson” are among Poe’s most popular horror stories. Herman Melville (1819-1891), whose Moby Dick, with a setting, evoking psychological terror and Gothic depths. Ambrose Bierce’s (1842-1914) story “The Damned Thing” (1898) presents a number of Gothic elements throughout. Henry James (1843-1916), wrote a number of ghost stories and probed social and psychological concerns of society. James’s The Turn of the Screw (1898) is his best known Gothic novel and his famous stories include “The Ghostly Rental” (1876) and “The Jolly Corner” (1908).Gertrude Atherton’s (1857-1948) “The Striding Place” (1896) and Sherwood Anderson’s (1876-1941) “Death in the Woods” which are stories, contain many Gothic elements. “The Outsider” (1921) is a horror story by H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) which combines fantasy, horror and Gothic tradition to create a nightmarish atmosphere. William Faulkner (1893-1962) used melodrama, sensationalism and violent imagery to depict the decay and corruption through his works Sanctuary (1931), As I Lay Dying (1930) and Light in August (1932),. These works combine elements like burlesque, horrific, macabre and dark humours with realism to caricature a society with its problems. Russian Gothic Literature: Alexander Bestuzhev (1797-1837), a Russian writer, who wrote several horror stories. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is regarded as a great writer. His novel War and Peace (1869) contains battle scenes, death shows, suffering and terrible situations. ’s (1821-1881) novel The Idiot (1869) highlights certain Gothic aspects. Gothicism also plays an important role in the stories of a Russian short story writer, Nikolay Karamzin (1766-1826). His stories “Natalia the Boyar’s

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Daughter” (1792) and “Poor Liza” (1792) introduces sentimentalism to readers. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814-1841) was an important Russian poet after . His poem, “The Demon” (1841) falls in the Gothic tradition. Nikolai Gogol’s (1809-1852) novel Dead Souls (1842), a satire on bureaucratic inequities and serfdom contains certain Gothic elements. Anton Chekhov (1860-1940), a well known short story writer in the world of literature. His short story “The Murder,” contains certain Gothic elements. Gothic fiction in Australia. In the mid 1800s, Australia has a rich tradition of horror tales and the common themes included alienation, exile, indigenous and settler identity. Writers such as Joseph Furphy, Rolf Boldrewood and Marcus Clarke embodied these such concepts in their writings. Some more writers worthy to mention include Henry Savery’s (1791–1842) Quintus Servington. Anna Maria Bunn’s (1808–99) The Guardian: A Tale by an Australian (1838), Mary Theresa Vidal’s (1815–69) Bengala (1860), Rosa Praed’s Outlaw and Lawmaker (1893), Edward Sorensen’s The Squatter’s Ward (1919) and Marcus Clarke (1846–81) His Natural Life, (1870) invoke a Gothic sensibility. These writers contributed to Gothic literature in their own ways. Apart from European countries, Gothic fiction is also rich in several parts of Asia, Africa and other parts of the world, but the problem is that much of it is not available in English or any other major world languages. The Gothic genre is also a perfect fit in the present era, because, “some of the issues that are explored separately in Gothic and postmodernist fiction, are one and the same, namely: crises of identity, the darkness of the human psyche, fragmentation of the self, and the philosophy of being and knowing” (Belville 53). Fredric Jameson declares in Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) that the “Gothic is a mere ‘class fantasy (or nightmare) in which the dialectic of privilege and shelter is exercised’. He further calls Gothic as a ‘boring and exhausted paradigm’ because postmodern is terrifying in itself; it is boring in his point of view because both of them, Gothic and Postmodernism, inspire anxiety and fear” (289).

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References:

Austin, Eliot, and Lawrence Eliot. Ghosts of the Gothic. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1980.

Axelrod, Alan. Charles Brockden Brown, an American Tale. Austin: U of Texas P, 1983.

Bayer-Berenbaum, Linda. The Gothic Imagination: Expansion in Gothic Literature and Art. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1982.

Beville, Maria. Gothic-postmodernism: Voicing the terrors of postmodernity. Vol. 43. Rodopi, 2009.

Crow, Charles L. ed. American Gothic: An Anthology 1787-1916. Maiden, Mass: Blackwell, 1999.

Fisher, Benjamin F. The Gothic's Gothic: Study Aids to the Tradition of the Tale of Terror. NY: Garland, 1988.

Garrett, Peter K. Gothic Reflections: Narrative Force in Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2003.

Goddu, Teresa A. Gothic America: Narrative. Historv and Nation. NY: Columbia UP, 1997.

Hogle, Jerrold E. ed. The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction.Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 2002.

Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press, 1991.Auerbach, Nina. Our Vampires. Ourselves. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995.

Mulvey-Roberts, Marie, ed. The Handbook to Gothic Literature. NY: New York UP, 1998.

Punter, David. The Literature of Terror: A History of Gothic Fictions from l765 to the Present Day. NY: Longmans, 1980.

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