GOTHIC FICTIONBy: Danielle Steward

3rd Period

GOTHIC ERA The Gothic Era is when writers of the

seventeen hundreds started writing novels that were based in terrifying and dark places, which were inspired by the architecture of the thirteen hundreds during the medieval times.

SETTINGS It's literature contained many

mysterious settings. They were often placed in graveyards, old houses and prisons.

It began the age of "horror stories", because there was hauntings and murders.

HOW IT STARTED Author, Horace Walpole, wrote the first

Gothic story that set off the Gothic Fiction genre in England.

GOTHIC WRITING It started in the eighteenth century and

It was known as an imitation of the medieval times and it featured many accounts of terrifying experiences.

DETAILS The writing done in the Gothic Fiction

was often dark and horrific and it was known for its “mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, “doubles,” madness (especially mad women), secrets, hereditary curses, and persecuted maidens”.

DETAILS It combines horror and romance. Gothic

Fiction contained characters like maids, monks, bandits, dragons, angels, and heroes. It showed obsession with medieval themes and it found its most natural settings in the buildings of this style—castles, mansions, and monasteries, often remote, crumbling, and ruined.

WHY DID PEOPLE LIKE IT? The writings of gothic fiction were

known to be scary and terrifying, yet pleasing.

It satisfied the readers.

AUTHORS IN GOTHIC FICTION Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Gregory

wrote novels after the first novel Horace Walpole wrote dealing with Gothic fiction.

WHEN IT STARTED… The first wave of Gothic novels started

between 1765 and 1820. Readers like the suspense and the

supernatural happenings. It drew them in.

IN THE NOVELS There were many topics in the Gothic

fiction novels that weren’t often discussed. Such as seduction, incestuous rape, matricide and other murders, and diabolism.

DIFFERENCES There is a difference between the Gothic

time period and the Gothic Fiction period. The Gothic Fiction period did not take place at the same time as the actual Gothic Period.

The authors were using what they knew of the Gothic time period to create stories. They also used each other’s work to add on to.

PARODIES The most famous parody of the Gothic is

Jane Austen's novel ,Northanger Abbey. It was written in 1818 and it was similar to a “sequel” of the Radcliffe stories that were written before hers.

RELIGION Gothic Fiction novels were Anti-Catholic,

because they did not agree with the law systems at the time under the Roman Catholic Church.

GOTHS The original “goths” were shunned

because many artists of the time thought that the went against the original classical Roman ways and that they killed Roman architects.

TORTURE AND LAWS The laws at the time were cruel and the

novels of the Gothic time showed how people were tortured in dungeons and prisons. The writers used that as an advantage to add terror into their stories.

DIFFERENCES IN POLITICS The authors of the Gothic Fiction genre

were in a different time period as the Gothic Era, so they did not share the same views, because it was not the same.

ARCHITECTURE The scenes from a Gothic Fiction novel

are based on the architecture of the Gothic Era and they contained cathedrals and castles. It was that of the medieval times. They were all said to be “dark and mysterious.”

ART Art had changed over the period.

Statues were made differently and there were different designs that artists had. The typical statue had a very slender body and an oval shaped face.

TODAY.. Today, it’s more so known as “horror”

stories and examples of it can be found in romantic novels, classic plays, and on television.