I will be focused on the sub genre of Gothic. In my secondary source research of this genre I did not have any issues finding sources of value. Even within the Santa Clara library there are numerous books on the subject. As a result, and the many different sub genres within the Gothic framework, I found that my research would need to be more focused than just attempting to understand the breadth of the sub genre. As such I have chosen to focus on the origins of the genre as well as the sub genre of Southern Gothic which evolved in the United States.
One of the secondary sources I have found examines the origins of the genre. In addition to focusing on early Gothic works, the author makes the argument that Gothic, as a dark form of romanticism, originated as a response to a decline in romantic ideals. The culture was moving away from romanticism, and had turned to empiricism and rationality. This is the reason, the author argues, that romantics had to turn to the dark corners of their psyche as well as the past. Romantic impulses had become taboo, and as a result indulging in them was thought of as perverse. Thus much of the ambiance of Gothic fiction was merely the byproduct of the culture. This would suggest that the horror elements of the genre were originally only a secondary goal. While certainly the Gothic changed to embrace the creation of terror, in the beginning it was dark because such displays of excessive emotion could only be found in dark and forgotten places.
Another secondary source examines the rise of Southern Gothic as a genre. I found this to be fascinatingly similar to the first book I read about the original rise of Gothic. Though the rise of Southern Gothic would not come until almost a century later the themes both literary and historic were surprisingly similar. Surprisingly, Southern Gothic was considered to be an insult at the time of its creation. Similar to how someone might have been insulted in the 1950s if there work was called fantasy or science fiction. Considering the caliber of the authors who wrote within this genre, and their importance today, I would have thought they would have gotten more credit when they were writing. This work compares Southern Gothic writers work as the genre evolved over time. An interesting point I noted while reading the criticisms, was that though some of the stories were written decades apart they struggled with the same dark aspects of Southern United states history. In retrospect it seems obvious, but I was surprised to read authors from 1880 and 1980 both trying to reconcile their lives to the specter of slavery.
This was an interesting read, I had not considered Gothic as a form of romanticism before but after reading your explanation of the origin I can understand now how they are similar, or at least how they have similar roots. I would then wonder how much, if at all, the romantic has been in turn influenced by the Gothic, though I realize that may be beyond the scope of your research. Even within the south, however, it might yield some result to look into the romanticism of southern life in the comparison to southern Gothic.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your perspective in this post! I thought the content was engaging, and the photos were a nice touch. I think it's interesting that the genre was considered a bit of a taboo for it's time and was considered insulting, especially since it emerged during a time of cultural shift. You mentioned that the gothic genre arose as the culture was moving away from romanticism, and I'm curious as to whether or not it has changed at all throughout the course of its development. For example, as time went on, did writers shift back to more romantic tendencies at all, or did this genre just move further and further away from romantic writing?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this post and was able to better understand gothic fiction works that I've read before such as Frankenstein. What I thought was most interesting was the fact that during the Southern Gothic period that people were insulted to be considered within this genre. Additionally, I find it fascinating that this genre also includes aspects of American slavery, especially since they're so spread out and probably have many different perspectives within them. I'd be interested to know an example of a book like this because it would probably be a complex read knowing that this genre is woven throughout stories of slavery.
ReplyDeleteAs my research has continued, I have been surprised to learn how the genre changed over its development. Most specifically how quickly the tropes of the genre were adopted during the early period of Gothic Novel writing. While the genre had its origins in a return to the taboo, within a few decades of its first popular works, the horror aspects began to be mass produced. I would have thought it wouldn't have been similar to today, but when I read about the number of pulpy Gothic novels which were produced during the early Victorian period, I have to think of the copy cat books which came out after Twilight. While the early Gothic writers were lost in their own ideas of romanticism, many realized that the horror elements drew a lot of people in. I guess it is just a case of people always being people no matter when they lived.
ReplyDelete