In The English Novel an Introduction, Terry Eagleton states while a novel is a “piece of prose fiction of reasonable length,” it is also contradictory to call it so, because not all novels are written in prose nor is there an exact definition of what is to be considered “reasonable length.” Eagleton goes on to state that the genre is void of an exact definition. He describes it as a “mighty melting pot” and a “mongrel among literary thoroughbreds (Eagleton 1).”
Eagleton says that because no one can agree on what exactly the novel itself is, it is therefore impossible to pinpoint exactly when the first novel was written. There is also some debate among scholars as to who penned the first novel, with authors such as Miguel de Cervantes and Daniel Defoe suggested as the prime candidates. However other scholars have suggested that the first novel may have been written much earlier, the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, perhaps (Eagleton 2).
However, Eagleton suggests that it is the consensus among most scholars that the novel originated from the literary romance. Although by modern standards, many novels would not be considered “romance,” they are still reminiscent of fairy tales and happy endings, mixed with the modern world of sex, power and wealth. Modern novels also still hold on to the concept of mighty, dashing heroes and evil, dastardly villains. Even the modern crime novels and supernatural thrillers usually possess both a protagonist and an antagonist, and whether or not it is a story of true love or solving a mystery, the reader expects that the novel will possess some sort of happy ending (Eagleton 2-3).
One particular genre of the novel is the Gothic novel. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a Gothic novel posse...
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...uising his real storyline of an insane Governess who becomes obsessed with a young child as a story of one who sees ghosts and tries to protect her young charges from evil. Since Henry James deliberately leaves out certain details of the plot, the reader must make their own decisions as to the underlying meaning.
Works Cited
Eagleton, Terry. The English Novel An Introduction. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. Print.
"Gothic Novel." n.d. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. web. 24 June 2014.
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw. New York : Dover Publication Inc, 1991 edition. Print.
Klein, Marcus. "Convention and Chaos in The Turn of the Screw." The Hudson Review (2007): 595-613. Article.
Mao, Weiqiang. "Give the Screw Another Turn--A Cultural Re-Readng of the Turn of the Screw." Journal of Language Teaching and Research Vol 1 No 1 (2010): 44-49. Article.
The classic ghost story, the Turn of the Screw, is filled with loose-ends and ambiguity. Are the ghosts real or imagined? Is the Governess a heroine or anti-heroine? Are the children really as innocent as they seem? In the novel, Henry James rarely provides an in-depth character that the reader actually gets to know. From the young romantic governess, to the intelligent ten year old, James keeps his characters morally ambiguous in order to further the “Unsolved mystery” style.
Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. W.W. Norton & Company. New York, London. 1981.
Screwtape is an interesting if confusing book. Lewis’ choice to only use Screwtape’s end of the conversation is an unusual artistic choice,
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.
The Web. James, Henry. The. The Turn of the Screw. 2nd ed.
Ford, Richard. “Introduction” in : Yates, R., Revolutionary Road, (2001 edition), Methuen Publishing Ltd, London.
Key Elements of Gothic Literature Jasmine Giles People enjoy reading gothic literature due to its heart rate exciting nature. Without having to engage with any real danger, it is common for the reader to feel anxiety and impaitence when reading gothic fiction. In order for the reader to feel these emotions, the author uses certain elements, such as a gloomy setting and old-fashioned dialoge. In the stories “The Black Cat” and “The Tell Tale Heart”, by elgar allen poe, and “The Landlady”, by Roland Dahl, there are many similarites that remanticize the idea of horror and mystery. Some elements, however, bring out the disbolical horror of gothic literature: the setting, characterization, and the motif of suspense.
Watkins, Duff. “The Screwtape Letters and Procress Theism.” Process Studies Vol. 8. Num 2. Summer 1972. p.114-118.
the elements of a gothic novel as it is not set in a remote place or a
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).
Punter David, ‘The Literature of Terror’, in A History of Gothic Fictions from 1765 to the Present Day, The Modern Gothic. Harlow, eds. (UK: Pearson Education, 1996)
Southern Gothic literature is a group of words bonded together to set a mood, message, plot, etc. Overall Southern Gothic Literature can be interesting and creepy at the same time, its style has been practiced for many years by southern writers which are located in the American South. Its popular writings have grew from generation to generation and is now a world wide genre. Works Cited Alice, Petry. A Rose for Emily.’
Secondly, the authors of Wuthering Heights and Heart of Darkness both write their novels in the narrative fr...
Michael Gamer, Romanticism and the Gothic: Genre, Reception, and Canon Formation (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2000) 15, Questia, Web, 29 May 2010.
The roots of the novel extend as far back as the beginning of communication and language because the novel is a compilation of various elements that have evolved over the centuries. The birth of the English novel, however, can be centered on the work of three writers of the 18th century: Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) and Henry Fielding (1707-1754). Various critics have deemed both Defoe and Richardson the father of the English novel, and Fielding is never discussed without comparison to Richardson. The choice of these three authors is not arbitrary; it is based on central elements of the novel that these authors contributed which brought the novel itself into place. Of course, Defoe, Richardson and Fielding added onto styles of the past and writing styles of the period, including moralistic instruction and picaresque stories. Using writing of the time and the literary tradition of the past, Defoe first crafted the English novel while Richardson and Fielding completed its inception.