Extract 1:
The Gothic begins with later-eighteenth-century writers' turn to the past; in the context of the
Romantic period, the Gothic is, then, a type of imitation medievalism. When it was launched in the later eighteenth century, The Gothic featured accounts of terrifying experiences in ancient castles — experiences connected with subterranean dungeons, secret passageways, flickering lamps, screams, moans, bloody hands, ghosts, graveyards, and the rest. By extension, it came to designate the macabre, mysterious, fantastic, supernatural, and, again, the terrifying, especially the pleasurably terrifying, in literature more generally. Closer to the present, one sees the Gothic pervading Victorian literature (for example, in the novels of Dickens and the Brontës), American fiction (from Poe and Hawthorne through
Faulkner), and of course the films, television, and videos of our own (in this respect, not-so-modern) culture. http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/romantic/topic_2/welcome.htm
Extract 2
The Gothic genre gained prominence in Britain in the late 18th century. Fog, smoke, decrepit mansions, insanity (usually afflicting a young heroine), sexuality, incest, and mystery are just some of the general characteristics of the Gothic literary tradition. The Gothic genre, which is still prevalent today, has undergone major shifts throughout its existence. In "British Gothic fiction, 1885-1930," Kelly Hurley draws on science fiction theorist Annette Kuhn when she writes, "The Gothic is rightly, if partially, understood as a cyclical drama that reemerges in times of cultural stress in order to negotiate anxieties for its readership by working through them in displaced (sometimes supernaturalized) form." During the end of the century, referred to as the fin de siècle, fears of change and a general opinion of the decline of ethical, moral, social, and sexual traditions were abundant. Particular to the Victorian fin de siècle, many scholars have pointed to shifts in science (particularly experiments on the human body and
Darwinism) within Victorian fin de siècle Gothic literature. http://www.unc.edu/~slivey/gothic/
Extract 3:
GOTHIC LITERATURE
The English Gothic novel began with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1765), which was enormously popular and quickly imitated by other novelists and soon became a recognizable genre. To most modern readers, however, The Castle of Otranto is dull reading; except for the villain Manfred, the characters are insipid; the action moves at a fast clip with no emphasis or suspense, despite the supernatural manifestations and a young maiden's flight through dark vaults. But contemporary readers found the novel electrifying original and thrillingly suspenseful, with its remote setting, its use of the supernatural, and its medieval trappings, all of which have been so frequently imitated and so poorly imitated that they have become stereotypes. The genre takes its name from Otranto's medieval– or Gothic–setting; early Gothic novelists tended to set their novels in remote times like the Middle Ages and in remote places like Italy (Matthew Lewis's The Monk, 1796) or the Middle East (William Beckford's
Vathek, 1786).
What makes a work Gothic is a combination of at least some of these elements:
• a castle, ruined or intact, haunted or not,
• ruined buildings which are sinister or which arouse a pleasing melancholy,
• dungeons, underground passages, crypts, and catacombs which, in modern houses, become spooky basements or attics,

• labyrinths, dark corridors, and winding stairs,
• shadows, a beam of moonlight in the blackness, a flickering candle, or the only source of light failing
(a candle blown out or an electric failure),
• extreme landscapes, like rugged mountains, thick forests, or icy wastes, and extreme weather,
• omens and ancestral curses,
• magic, supernatural manifestations, or the suggestion of the supernatural,
• a passion-driven, wilful villain-hero or villain,
• a curious heroine with a tendency to faint and a need to be rescued–frequently,
• a hero whose true identity is revealed by the end of the novel,
• horrifying (or terrifying) events or the threat of such happenings.
The Gothic creates feelings of gloom, mystery, and suspense and tends to the dramatic and the sensational, like incest, diabolism, and nameless terrors. Most of us immediately recognize the Gothic
(even if we don't know the name) when we encounter it in novels, poetry, plays, movies, and TV series.
For some of us--and I include myself, the prospect of safely experiencing dread or horror is thrilling and enjoyable.
Elements of the Gothic have made their way into mainstream writing. They are found in Sir Walter
Scott's novels, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and in Romantic poetry like Samuel Coleridge's "Christabel," Lord Byron's "The Giaour," and John Keats's "The Eve of St.
Agnes." A tendency to the macabre and bizarre which appears in writers like William Faulkner, Truman
Capote, and Flannery O'Connor has been called Southern Gothic.
Extract 4:
"Goth" is a term that was applied to various Germanic tribes who ransacked southern Europe from 376-
410 CE. Because the Goths were credited with bringing about the fall of Rome and its classical culture,
Renaissance and Enlightenment critics later applied the term "Gothic" negatively, to mean "medieval" or that which was considered barbaric. Medieval or "Gothic" architecture, for example, did not follow the classical ideals of simplicity, unity, and symmetry—instead, soaring towers, pointed vaults or arches, flying buttresses, gargoyles and other intricate or "wild" elements prevailed in churches, castles, and monasteries. "Gothic" gradually lost its negative connotation and was used to refer to an ancient past, often in a nostalgic way.
The Gothic movement in literature, like Romanticism, is viewed as a reaction to Enlightenment rationalism, a return to the primitive. The 18 th century was an "Age of Reason" concerned with classical principles and scientific progress. The novel, a young genre, was predominantly realistic and didactic.
Appearing near the end of the 18 th century, however, Gothic novels drew upon the conventions of the medieval (chivalric) romances that told of knights battling with magic and monsters. Gothic novels presented a protagonist’s immersion into a dark, horrific realm of some kind and reintroduced supernatural elements into fiction.
Gothic texts characteristically deal with difficult-to-express issues and anxieties. Boundaries or limits
(political, philosophical, sexual, etc.) are both established and challenged in Gothic fiction. Blurring or disruptions of borders are common (e.g., inside/outside, illusion/reality, masculine/feminine, material/spiritual, good/evil), and the tensions between the scientific and the supernatural are often prominent. Originally called "Gothic romances," Gothic novels were consumed by a popular audience— often women—and initially considered to be of low literary quality. The Gothic novel's "golden age" is generally cited as lasting from 1764-1840; however, the Gothic influence remains visible not only in literature, but also in film, television, music, and even dance.