The Gothic Novel: Exploring the Dark Side of Human Nature
Classified in Physics
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The Gothic Novel
Origins and Conventions
Gothic literature, a movement that focused on ruin, decay, death, terror, and chaos, and privileged irrationality and passion over rationality and reason, grew in response to the historical, sociological, psychological, and political contexts of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although Horace Walpole is credited with producing the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, in 1764, his work was built on a foundation of several elements. Walpole’s novel was wildly popular, and his novel introduced most of the stock conventions of the genre:
- An intricate plot
- Stock characters
- Subterranean labyrinths
- Ruined castles
- Supernatural occurrences
While it may be comparatively easy to date the beginning... Continue reading "The Gothic Novel: Exploring the Dark Side of Human Nature" »