Natalie King
Period: 1
Date: 11/09/09
The Dark Romantics/ Webquest
http://hem.passagen.se/hehe/what_is_dark_romanticism.htm
1. What is Dark Romanticism?
A movement in literature, music, movies, comics etc. towards the unfettered expression of the
decadent natural world and the obscure supernatural world.
2.
What is Romanticism? (third definition)
The quality or state of being romantic.
3. Who provides the theoretical background for DR?
Edmund Burke
4. What did Dark Romanticism React against
The Age of Enlightenment and it's blind materialism and faith in reason.
Ignore section on Dark Romanticism Today
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_romanticism
Section on Relation to Gothic
1. Where did Gothic Fiction originate?
England in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries
2. What are some of the elements of Gothic Fiction?
With common elements of darkness and the supernatural, and featuring characters like maniacs and
vampires, Gothic fiction is more about sheer terror than Dark Romanticism's themes of dark mystery
and skepticism regarding man.
3. What major Authors are considered Dark Romantics?
Lord Byron, Samuel Coleridge, Mary Shelley, John Shek, and John Polidori
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction
(intro only)
1. What is the primary feeling associated with Gothic Lit?
Pleasing sort of terror…horror and romance.
2. What is the sublime? (Click link and return)
Is the quality of greatness or vast magnitude, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical,
aesthetic, spiritual or artistic.
3. Describe what might be present in the Gothic landscape?
Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, and decay
4. How did Gothic writers feel about the medieval period?
English Gothic writers often associated medieval buildings with what they saw as a dark and terrifying
period, characterized by harsh laws enforced by torture, and with mysterious, fantastic, and
superstitious rituals.
5. Choose three stock characters from Gothic Fiction to define (click on links)
Villain - is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction.
Vampire - are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in
the form of blood) of living creatures regardless of them being undead or a living person.
Demons - is a supernatural being that is generally described as a malevolent spirit.