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Influence of the romantic literary period
Importance of romanticism in English literature
A study of Gothic Culture
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In what follows, my research paper will rely on an article by Kathy Prendergast entitled “Introduction to The Gothic Tradition”. The significance of this article resides in helping to recapitulate the various features of the Gothic tradition. In this article the authoress argues that in order to overturn the Enlightenment and realistic literary mores, many of the eighteenth century novelists had recourse to traditional Romantic conventions in their works of fiction, like the Arthurian legendary tales (Prendergast).
Romantic literature, as Kathy Prendergast further claims, highlighted things like splendor, greatness, vividness, expressiveness, intense feelings of passion, and stunning beauty. The Romantic literary genre favored “parts” over “whole” and “content” over “form”. The writer argues that though both the Romantic literary genre and the Gothic art mode were medieval in nature, they came to clash with what was called classical conventions. That’s why, preoccupations with such things as the supernatural, the awful, the dreadful, the repulsive and the grotesque were the exclusive focus of the nineteenth century Gothic novel. While some critics perceived the Gothic as a sub-genre of Romanticism, some others saw it as a genre in its own right (Prendergast).
Kathy Prendergast, further contends, that it is this convergence of the Gothic art style and Romantic genre which was quintessential of the nineteenth century era. Both collided to spotlight terror, valuelessness emotion and vulnerability. Both collided to perpetrate a sense of wonderment in the reader/viewer, a sense of helplessness in the face of some superior force. The Gothic architecture with its peculiarity, mystery and imperilment; the Gothic architecture with its a...
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... standards and moral codes. Both are regarded as epitomes of cruelty that repulse and paradoxically attract. Their similarities coincide especially at the beginning of the novel; especially when Heathcliff supplicates Catherine’s return: “Cathy, do come. Oh do once more! Oh! My heart’s darling, hear me this time—Catherine, at last!” (Emily Bronte: 23).
Cristena Ceron, goes on to assert, that these particular words of Emily’s Byronic hero are definitely corresponding to those uttered by Byron’s vampire in Act 2, Scene 4 of “Manfred”, when he addressed his beloved Astarte with the following words:“Hear me, hear me”(88) (LISA Revue).
The similarities existing between the two characters, Cristina Ceron argues, also align in Manfred’s first act soliloquy, in which the Byronic hero praises his superhuman powers announcing himself the devil and the sovereign of the world:
Gothic Literature was a natural progression from romanticism, which had existed in the 18th Century. Initially, such a ‘unique’ style of literature was met with a somewhat mixed response; although it was greeted with enthusiasm from members of the public, literary critics were much more dubious and sceptical.
Written in 1818, the latter stages of the Gothic literature movement, at face value this novel embodies all the key characteristics of the Gothic genre. It features the supernatural, ghosts and an atmosphere of horror and mystery. However a closer reading of the novel presents a multifaceted tale that explores
The inclusions of gothic conventions of the same variety create a gothic genre for the novel. The use of the weather in the form of pathetic fallacies is particularly important in the way this forms the novel to be gothic. As the description of the weather evokes an atmosphere of suspense and the many connotations associated to the weather in particular the stereotype...
When coming to the conclusion, it is interesting a range of opinions about whether or not Gothic Literature is losing his popularity or is still popular as ever. A range of opinions inform the judgment to be made about Gothic Literature. Overall, the responses gathered come up with the idea that Gothic Literature is losing its popularity, although, according to figure 2.2 this is supported by figures made in 2007 to 2008 which establishes that since then there have been more novels that have come out which either support the argument that gothic literature is popular or not.
Various authors develop their stories using gothic themes and characterizations of this type to lay the foundation for their desired reader response. Although Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Peter Taylor’s “Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time” are two completely different narratives, both of these stories share a commonality of gothic text representations. The stories take slightly different paths, with Poe’s signifying traditional gothic literature and Taylor approaching his story in a more contemporary manner.
The Gothic is one of the most well known genres in literature, not for the reason that it has been around for centuries, but because of the psychological impact that comes along with it. Gothic literature is one of the few that deals with as stated, the “awful obscurity that haunted eighteenth century rationality and morality (Botting).” However, what is not known is most authors who write Gothic literature may feel like a large portion of science fiction and interest in the futurism, but many pieces also stem from their own personal lives. Oscar Wilde, writer of The Picture of Dorian Gray, is one notable author who holds subtle boundaries between his personal life and his works.
Ringe, Donald A. American Gothic: Imagination and Reason in Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Lexington KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1982.
Horace Walpole’s, The Castle of Otranto, is regarded as the first gothic novel. It laid down many of the plot devices and characteristics that would become typical of the Gothic such as castles, decay of humanity, rough landscapes, and hidden identities. One of the things Walpole tried to do with this story was to blend it Romance of the rime and shift it towards an idea of mystery, hidden passages, ghosts, and the darker side of human ...
I offer by way of introduction to the Gothic literary world an extract taken from Ann. B Tracy’s book The Gothic Novel 1790-1830: Plot Summaries and Index Motifs:
Word by word, gothic literature is bound to be an immaculate read. Examining this genre for what it is could be essential to understanding it. “Gothic” is relating to the extinct East Germanic language, people of which known as the Goths. “Literature” is defined as a written work, usually with lasting “artistic merit.” Together, gothic literature combines the use of horror, death, and sometimes romance. Edgar Allan Poe, often honored with being called the king of horror and gothic poetry, published “The Fall of House Usher” in September of 1839. This story, along with many other works produced by Poe, is a classic in gothic literature. In paragraph nine in this story, one of our main characters by the name of Roderick Usher,
Romanticism played a large role in the creation of gothic literature, and it was considered to be “a lunatic fringe version of romanticism” (Tiffin). Gothic novels often had a powerful unleashing of emotions to very extreme levels “beyond social constraining” (Tiffin). The genre’s character often had an excess of a specific type (Tiffin), and in an analysis of Frankenstein and Northanger Abbey, this excess can be seen in Frankenstein’s ambition and Catherine’s curiosity.
Brown’s perspective on the European fiction that, while gothic and therefore focusing on “superstition and exploded manners, gothic castles and chimeras”, merely appealed to popular taste and as such held the consensus that reading fiction was an idle pastime (Elliot, ix). Brown’s aim was to change the general consensus of fiction reading and create a genre that challenged readers to use their full intellectual capacity. He did this in Wieland through not only the dialectic, but also through allusions to the climate of the world he was living in. If we are to take Wieland as a representative for the American gothic, then the genre must achieve that goal.
Gothic writing is related to a style of fiction that deals with the mysterious or grotesque; Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Ministers Black Veil” is classified as a dark romantic work because it contains the themes of sin, guilt, and looking at the darker side of human life. He had trouble from his early life, his dreary adulthood, and his fascinations with common man. His early and more unsuccessful work is from his silent and productive years.
Setting his work in the Middle Ages in a remote castle with horror and fantastic elements, Horace Walpole popularized the Gothic Romance genre with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. He was the vanguard in bring thrills to readers with ancient prophecies, mysterious deaths, specters and supernatural events in his novel. However, the Gothic genre reaches a climax in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), which is marked by its intensity of emotions and artistic subtlety. Wuthering Heights is an exquisite blend of realism and romance that makes it a classic love story that haunts us till today. In this paper, I will argue that social problems of class and economics pull Heathcliff and Catherine apart, and the Gothic Romance genre affects Wuthering Heights by adding Gothic elements of an extreme weather and landscape, supernatural events and death in her novel to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere appropriate for a revenge plot with heightened emotions.
Michael Gamer, Romanticism and the Gothic: Genre, Reception, and Canon Formation (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2000) 15, Questia, Web, 29 May 2010.