Todd Erickson
ENG602 Summer 2014
Notes and Quotes on excerpt from The Gothic Tradition by David Stevens
I.
Setting the Scene—Cultural contexts for “Gothic”
a. Historical
i. Goths=Germanic tribe
ii. “freedom-loving gothic tradition— (like Robin Hood)
iii. Difficult to define:
1. Victor Sage: “the term ‘Gothick’ is an ambiguous one…an
almost unpredictable intersection of religious belief, of
aesthetic taste and political inclination” (9)
2. used by opposing parties—Whig and Tory
3. came to be associated with medieval period (Otranto)
4. valuing feelings against emphasis on reason,
rationalism in Enlightenment
iv. development of “middle class”--had time to read about
imaginary fears/dangers
b. Additional influences (Gothic is both derivative and influential)
i. art (list on p 12-13): e.g. Goya’s “The Sleep of Reason Produces
Monsters” (repressed monsters, that is!)
ii. architecture: cathedrals, abbeys, gargoyles.
1. William Kent’s work—even “planted” dead trees!
2. McEvoy: “a literalisation of the Romantic metaphor”
(14)
iii. poetry: borrows from various works and writers: Shakespeare,
Milton, etc. “graveyard” poetry
c. Political Context (15)—political and social change 18th-19th century
Europe—Gothic as reactionary and causal—revolutionary ideas
within a conservative structure
i. French Revolution, 1789uncertainties / confusion of power,
law, family, sexuality in Gothicterror leads to lit of terror
ii. middle class ambivalence towards aristocracy
iii. “gothic” used as insult re: political extremes
d. Spiritual Context (18)
i. Gothic as symptom of change / uncertainty
ii. Gothic as reaction to century of “rationalism”—restored fears
and superstitions, magic
iii. Coleridge = fascination with unconventional, adherence to
conventional
iv. obsession with and condemnation of same thing (like
tabloids)—The Monk
v. impact of education / indoctrination—good or bad? (22)
e. Gothic literary forms and audiences (22)
i. Novel—not poetry—as primary expression
1. a new form, considered inferior, even dangerous for its
mostly female audience
2. Gothic brought romance to the novel
ii. poetry and drama also important forms
1. use of poems in novels
2. ballads shared traits (love, death, supernatural)
3. drama—stage versions of works like Frankenstein
4. drama shares melodrama, sensational action, stock
characters
iii. production of text—tech improvements, circulating libraries
f. Readers and Writers (28): Matthew “Monk” Lewis; William Beckford,
Mary Shelley, Ann Radcliffe
II.
Finding the Gothic in gothic texts
a. Textual characteristics (list on 46)
i. fascination for past
1. historical accuracy not so important
2. focus on mood/atmosphere
3. gothic ballads (e.g. “Ancient Mariner”)
4. gothic Shakespeare—settings, imagery, themes
5. modern texts set in Gothic pasts—emphasize themes
via unfamiliar (Game of Thrones)
ii. affinity for odd, supernatural, magical, sublime
1. the “inexplicable”
2. the sublime = “reaction to an overwhelming experience”
(50)
a. sublime left unexplained vs. w/ rational closure
iii. psychological insights through degrees of characterization
1. desire to experience beyond consciousness
2. emphasis on sexuality (Freud and psychoanalysis—saw
value in gothic as a pioneering this)
iv. fear, horror, macabre within context of feeling over thought
1. a usual but not prime ingredient of gothic
2. horror vs terror—Radcliffe definitions (53)
a. terror “awakens the faculties”
b. horror “freezes” them
v. exotic settings
1. “ruins dungeons, darkness” (54)
2. value of obscurity—e.g. “The Raven”
3. ruins embodying obscurity (e.g. The Shining)
vi. style (56): plots within plots, multiple narrators, overt
symbolism
Connection/s to Frankenstein:
1. Frankenstein’s focus on studies and texts considered
baseless versus empirical and rational connect to
historical shifts or confusion in response to
Enlightenment’s rationalism
a. “emerging from this rather uneven, often
misleading semantic field is a sense of the gothic
as recovering and renewing a tradition which
valued feelings and sensibility, and which had
been all but usurped by the developing
dominance of reason as the key to all human
problems” (9).
b. “If…my father had taken the pains to explain to
me, that the principles of Agrippa had been
entirely exploded, and that modern system of
science had been introduced, which possessed
much greater powers than the ancient, because
the powers of the latter were chimerical, while
those of the former were real and practical…the
more rational theory of chemistry which has
resulted from modern discoveries” (Shelley 22).
c. “I was required to exchange chimeras of
boundless grandeur for realities of little worth”
(Shelley 28).
2. Use of ghosts, superstitions, a belief in the supernatural
a. “the gothic may simply have restored mindless
fears and superstitions that should have
disappeared with the historical Enlightenment
during the previous century or two” (19-20).
b. “Nor were these my only visions. The raising of
ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded
by my favorite authors” (Shelley 23)
c. “Unless I had been animated by an almost
supernatural enthusiasm, my application to this
study would have been irksome, and almost
intolerable” (Shelley 31).
d. “I suddenly beheld the figure of a
man…advancing towards me with superhuman
speed” (Shelley 67)
3. Frankenstein displays great concern for education,
conflicted feelings for his education, preferences in
education, unfettered by emotion/passion
a. “The impact of education or indoctrination...was
in fact fundamental to the gothic worldview…would find perhaps its fullest
consideration and debate in Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein” (22).
b. “A human being in perfection ought always to
preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never to
allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his
tranquility” (Shelley 34).
c. See page 21 in Frankenstein—how his educ was
successful and preferable…until it caused his
downfall!