Gothic Literature

1. Gothic Literature

2. Edgar Allan Poe“Father” of Gothic Literature in America • 1809-1849 • Lived with foster parents (Allans) since age 3 • His mom, foster mom & wife died of TB • Expelled from West Point for deliberately misbehaving • At 22, he moved in with Aunt & cousin • Married cousin in 1836 (he was 27, she was 13)

3. Poe’s Legacy • He reached popularity while alive, but lived most of his life in poverty • Considered the “founder” of the modern short story • Originator of the detective story • Collapsed in a Baltimore street; died in the hospital a few days later

4. Poe’s Unique Style • Use of dashes or other interrupters in sentences to suggest hurried or excited speech • Strong rhythm, produced by repetition of phrases and word patterns • Frequent use of figurative language (similes & metaphors) • Formal language suited to upper-class settings and/or intellectual characters

5. Works by Poe • “The Masque of the Red Death” • “The Raven” • “The Black Cat”

6. Nathanial Hawthorne • 1804-1864 • Born in Salem, Massachusetts • Had an unhappy childhood, and became reclusive, like his mother • Good friend of writers Longfellow & Emerson • Like Poe, he was successful in his life, but made little money

7. Hawthorne, Continued • Died while visiting Former President Franklin Pierce • Best known/most successful work was a novel called The Scarlet Letter • Wrote “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” an allegory

8. Hawthorne’s Style • Like Poe, Hawthorne used formal language • He used foreshadowing, to give clues about what is to come • He used imagery and figurative to create a creepy “mood” or atmosphere in his works

9. Southern Gothic • A modern offshoot of Gothic literature, inspired by Poe and Hawthorne • Popular in the early to middle 1900’s • Writers still used creepy characters and strange situations, but not to scare audiences • Purpose was to comment on society

10. Flannery O’Connor • 1925-1964 • Her characters are obsessed with sin and salvation • Characters are quirky and “grotesque” • Wrote “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”

11. William Faulkner • 1897-1962 • Adopted a strange style which used “stream of consciousness” and fractured chronology • Won the Nobel Prize in literature • Wrote “A Rose for Emily”