A Brief Intro to “Gothic”

1. A Brief Intro to “Gothic” • Gothic – of or relating to a style of fiction characterized by the use of desolate or remote settings and macabre, mysterious, or violent incidents.

2. "Gothic" originally referred to a style of art produced in Europe in the latter part of the Middle Ages, or medieval period (12th to 16th centuries). While the Gothic style is most frequently associated with architecture, it can also apply to sculpture, panel painting, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, jewelry and textiles produced in that period.

3. The "Goths" were a northern Germanic tribe, one of many so-called "barbarian" pagan tribes which invaded former territories of the Christian Roman Empire following the fall of Rome in the 4th century A.D. These waves of invaders, who were absorbed by Christianity, brought an architectural and artistic sensibility which was very distinctive from the Classical or Greco-Roman style.

4. Whereas the Greco-Roman style was subtle and controlled, the Gothic style was extreme, seemingly uncontrolled, larger than life, intended to invoke a strong emotional response, whether awe, pity, compassion, horror or fear. In human representation, where the Classical style was both naturalistic and idealistic, the Gothic style was crude, caricature-like, grotesque and exaggerated.

5. The world of Gothic fiction is characterized by a chronic sense of apprehension and the premonition of impending but unidentified disaster. The Gothic world is the fallen world, the vision of fallen man, living in fear and alienation, haunted by images of his mythic expulsion, by its repercussions, and by an awareness of his unavoidable wretchedness....Gothic heroes and heroines are on their own, stumbling alone, sometimes in foreign countries, through appalling complexities of decision and action, obliged to find their own solutions or go under; estrangement from family ties is their normal condition....Protagonists are frequently orphans, or they are foundlings or adopted, their family origins mysterious." (Ann B. Tracy, The Gothic Novel 1790-1830: Plot Summaries and Index Motifs).

6. The Gothic novel dominated English literature from its conception in 1764 with the publication of The Castle of Ortanto by Horace Walpole has been continually criticized by numerous critics for its sensationalism, melodramatic qualities, and its play on the supernatural.

7. Although the Gothic novel influenced many of the emerging genres, the outpouring of Gothic novels started to ease by 1815 and with the publication of Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer the genre began to fade. The Gothic novel had come full circle, from rebellion to the Age of Reasons order, to its encompassing and incorporation of Reason as derived from terror.

8. Edgar Allan Poeon American Literature "No man has recorded, no man has dared to record, the wonders of his inner life."

9. Edgar was born on January 19, 1809 by David Poe, and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe in Boston. • Second of three children (a brother and a sister). • Abandoned by his father just before his mother died when he was two (1811). • Adopted by wealthy tobacco merchant named John Allan, at the request of his wife (1811). • From his eighth to his thirteenth year he attended the Manor House school, at Stoke-Newington, a suburb of London. • In 1826 he gained a creditable record as a student at the University of Virginia, although it is admitted that he contracted debts and had "an ungovernable passion for card-playing." These debts may have led to his quarrel with Mr.. Allan which eventually compelled him to make his own way in the world. • Poe relocated to Baltimore, and his first collection of poems was published in 1827. • His foster mother, Mrs.. Allan died in 1829. Mr.. Allan enrolled Edgar in the United States Military Academy at West Point, seeing this as an honorable way to rid himself of his ward. • Poe soon found the cadets life a little too disciplined for his liking. He procured his release (expelled) in 1831 by purposely neglecting his duties. • John Allan dies in 1834, Poe was left out of the will in favor of illegitimate children. • Poe had earned a name as a prominent literary critic by 1835. • At the age of 26, Poe marries his 13 year old cousin,Virginia Clemm (1836).

10. In 1838 he published "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym", while in New York City. • In 1843 Poe wrote and published "The Tell-Tale Heart." • He gained national fame in 1845 when “The Raven” was published. • Poe then became editor of the Broadway Journal, a short-lived weekly, in which he republished most of his short stories. • Virginia Poe died at the age of 25 (1847). • Poe’s subsequent years were a blur of drunken sprees, marriage proposals and suicide attempts. • Poe was found unconscious on Baltimore street on Oct. 3, 1849. He died on Oct. 7 at Washington College Hospital.

11. Major Themes • 1. Love - usually of a mourning man for his deceased beloved.2. Pride - physical and intellectual.3. Beauty - of a young woman either dying or dead.4. Death - a source of horror. • Poe's Four Types of Short Stories • 1. Arabesque - strange; use of the supernatural; symbolic fantasies of the human condition; (Example - "The Fall of the House of Usher").2. Grotesque - heightening of one aspect of a character (Example - "The Man Who Was Used Up").3. Ratiocinative - detective fiction (Example "The Purloined Letter").4. Descriptive (Example - "The Landscape Garden").

12. Poe, Horror and the Supernatural • Undisputedly the models for his horror tales, as both parody and imitation , come primarily from Blackwood's Magazine. Traditional horror tales before Poe included such memorable classics as Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), Mary Shelly's Frankenstein (1818), Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764), and Varney the Vampyre: The Feast of Blood (1845-1847). Poe satisfies the same pleasures of mystery and thrills without sacrificing the reader's intellect. With each story, Poe's elegant prose, carefully wrought plots and meticulous detail elevated the genre to new heights. Poe’s Take on horror and mysticism: "Metzengerstein" (1832) "Berenice" (1835) "Morella" (1835) "The Cask of Amontillado" "The Masque of the Red Death" "The Black Cat" "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843) "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1842) "The Premature Burial (1844) "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839)

13. Poe, Father of Detective Fiction • Poe is the unchallenged creator of the modern detective story. Most of Poe's mystery stories were written during a relatively short period, 1841 - 1844. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) is the most important of Poe's mystery works. It is the first, and the one that set the form of not only Poe's other stories, but of all subsequent mystery fiction to come. Virtually all of the conventions we recognize today originated in his writings. Arthur Conan Doyle himself acknowledged his debt to Poe. The Dupin Trilogy: • "Murders in the Rue Morgue" • "Mystery of Marie Roget" • "The Purloined Letter" Other Tales of Ratiocination: • "Thou Art the Man" • "The Gold-Bug" • "The Man of the Crowd"

14. The Romantic • Poe’s romanticism was filled with darkness and misery, perhaps a portrayal of his own harsh and troubled life. In his chaotic worlds Poe created an escape from the unromantic miseries of life. The worlds Poe wrote of reflected that misery, but turned it into something desirable and grand. His 1839 poem, "Lenore", demonstrates this, as he romanticizes a woman in her death. Rhyme and diction serve to formalize the tone into that of a romantic elegy, while the prose level meaning of the poem romanticizes death.

15. Edgar Allan Poe was an innovative genius, a true artist who forever changed American literature. In his short forty years on this earth he invented whole new categories of writing style, set the standards for modern criticism, shaped new standards for the gothic style, dared to open the doors to the darker side of the mind, and most importantly he challenged the readers intellect. He wrote to stimulate emotion, to invoke a reaction in his readers’ mind, heart, and soul. The precision and methodologies he developed for writing fiction, short stories, and poetry has certainly secured him a spot in the literary hall of fame.