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What is Gothic Romanticism?

What is Gothic Romanticism?. (not the pseudo-suicidal, cigarette-smoking, heavy eye-liner, life is only misery, won’t somebody just shoot me, variety…).

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What is Gothic Romanticism?

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  1. What is Gothic Romanticism? (not the pseudo-suicidal, cigarette-smoking, heavy eye-liner, life is only misery, won’t somebody just shoot me, variety…)

  2. Gothic: a derogatory Renaissance term for the non-classical ugliness of the Middle Ages (ca. 12th-15th Cent.) and its unique, striking architecture[ex. Flying buttress; pointed arches; gargoyles; vaulted arches] Originallyattributed to the Germanic barbarian tribes—the Goths

  3. Gothic Romanticism was… • A sub-movement of the Romantic Movement • Originally popularized in Germany, Italy, and England (spread elsewhere in Europe and eventually the U.S.) • An extreme reaction against humanistic, rationalist literature of the Age of Enlightenment (1760-1820) which focused on emotion • Originally lasted from c. 1764 to the 1820’s • The forerunner of horror, sci-fi, mystery and Victorian Romance

  4. The first Gothic novel was Horace Walpole’sCastle of Otranto (1764)

  5. Characteristics of Gothic fiction: • Medieval or medieval-like setting • Vivid descriptions of nature: creates atmosphere and emotion (metonymy) • Belief of living in an age of limitless possibilities and new beginnings (science)…often strong cautionary tales • Mysterious disappearances and supernatural occurrences; events are typically grotesque and absurd • Protagonist is usually a solitary, egocentric character who has dark tendencies (socially alienated) • Authorial use of “fake documentation” as literary style • Women subjugated by a powerful male (or male society)

  6. Showed the “dark side” of human nature… “…The nightmarish terrors that lie beneath the controlled and ordered surface of the conscious mind.” -M. Shelley

  7. Though the desired effect is for the reader to be pleasantly terrified , Frankenstein was not a “monster” story…. It was regarded as a “serious novel of ideas”

  8. Frankenstein addresses deep philosophical issues through fantastic, grotesque events… This is the true nature of Gothic Romanticism!!! (not depressing, cigarette-smoking, emo nonsense!!!)

  9. Some Gothic literary concepts: • The “dark side” (you know this one already), which leads to … • The Doppelganger (alter ego) • The Villain-Hero • Science vs. nature; testing limitations • Biblical allusions (and corresponding themes) • God and Satan (betrayal) • Adam and Eve (knowledge; temptation) • The “fall of man” (loss of innocence; original sin) • Man’s hubristic nature (pride and consequences) • Man’s separation from God (alienation)

  10. R.I.P.

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