Gothic Unseen Flashcards
The Prince
Nicholei Machiavelli’s ‘the prince’ 1532- becomes a primary source of mens archaic thirst for power/dominion, the philosophy of the gothic antagonist
The castle of Ontranto
Walpole - 1764
-Tyrannical male Manfred
-Isabella passive prisoner, sexually pursuited
-Underground/ Subterraneous setting ‘labyrinth’
The mysteries of Udulpho
Radcliff - 1794
-Pictoral art’ of setting shows oppresion
-purple bruise like sky
-extended sentence form, elongated description conveying how the situation and setting dominates the protagonist
-Tyrannical male monotoni, uncle of Emily, conventional orphan
The Monk
Lewis - 1796
-subterraneous/labyrinth setting
-tyrannical male ambrosio
-Develops anti catholic sentiment in the gothic, the post refromation prejudice
-extreme explicit violence - rape of Antonia
-reader a voyeur into a world of sexual depravity, lewis and de sade inspired one another
-catholicism as ‘other’ can position it as scapegoat, perhaps reflection of the human races need to feel superior.
The Italian
Radcliff -1797
-Vivaldi is a benevolent male
-marries Ellenna
-Is sensitive and compassionate
-explores uncanny - figure
-Catholic iconography of church
Northanger abbey
Austen - 1818
-satirizes the gothic
-Anticlimax as Catherine falls asleep
-Gothic convention of secrecy as looks in cabinet
Frankenstein
Shelly - 1818
-Gothic as expression of human emotion
-Monster humanized. Parallels to Milton’s Satan
The fall of the house of usher
Poe - 1839
-Presents setting (the house) as symbol of family’s power
-Extended metaphor, its fall equates to loss of power
Wuthering heights
Bronte -1847
-Supernatural as innocent child
-Lockwood’s violence, criticism of humans violent inclinations
-exploration of memory
Jane Eyre
Bronte - 1847
-More subtle understanding of horror, not the ghostly but emotion
-jane sees herself as a ‘real spirit’ = alienation from humanity and others
Setting Sentence starters
Typically, the gothic act relies on settings of ancient castles and monasteries .. in this respect x is conventional/unconventional
gruesome setting is an expressionist device which has the effect of externalising the narrator’s state of
mind
Weather
The gothic typically employs pathetic fallacy, presenting the changing weather as analogous to the protagonists emotional journey.
Supernatural
The gothic comes to posit man’s anxieties surrounding the uncanny and unfamiliar, x developing to the climax of a possibly supernatural apparition
See ghosts/skulls as a device ringing the past into the present, a common feature of Gothic writing,
Emotion
The setting thus acts analogous to the heighten emotions of the protagonist, conventional of how the early gothic champions emotion in the face of traditional enlightenment philosophy
Gender
The presence of an tyrannous male figure is largely conventional in the gothic, therefore in this regard x conforms/subverts
Fear
Enlightenment era writer Ann Radcliff theorised how terror ‘awakens the faculties’ while horror ‘annihilates’ our autonomy. This emotional relationship is upheld/rewritten through
Starters
X posits the binary opposition between reason and emotion
X champions emotion in the face of traditional enlightement philosophy
X forms an aura of/ atmosphere of
Narrative
Like many early gothic novels x adopts the use of a 3rd person internal focaliser
More so conventional of Victorian gothic novels, x adopts a 1st person narrative
the passage is a first person
narrative.. gives the passage verisimilitude despite its extraordinary setting,
The Other
“The Other is a mirror image of the self.”
Edward Said – used the term other to descirbe a minority group whose culture and belief are different, this reflects the ‘othering ‘ of catholicism in gothic
–See imagery of otherness in matthew lewis’ the monk (1796) - ‘barbairan’/’ravisher’, described not by name
The uncanny
‘The Uncanny’ locates a strangeness in the ordinary - coined by Sigmund Freud’s 1919 essay on the subject.
The numinous dread
Defined by Rudolph Otto, the numinous dread exudes ‘absolute unapproachability, power and urgency, and a force which is most easily perceived as the wrath of God’.
-Sense of fear/ awe towards gods power
eg) One of the best literary examples of numinous dread in the Gothic genre is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein’s monster embodies the numinous by existing as an unnatural being, both human and not-human, evoking awe and fear. Dr. Frankenstein’s initial creation of life is portrayed as an awe-inspiring, almost divine act, but it quickly devolves into horror as the monster becomes an uncontrollable force.
Terms
Enumeratio, the device refers to making a point with long detail.
- Epizeuxis, repeats one word for emphasis.
- Prolepsis, flashforwards.
- Analepsis, flashbackwards.
- Digetic narrator, a narrator who participates in the story, and possesses an active role.
Ronald Bathes ‘hermeneutic code’, evoking mystery, and ‘proairetic code’, building action and suspense.
Bifurcated Ideology
The possibility of contradictory moral behaviour, used in the Gothic to format characters of a distrustful nature.
-Subject good/ evil at the same time
Relatable to Lewis’ ‘The Monk’ (1796) features Ambrosio, a monk who defies Christianity as he commits crimes of rape and necromancy.
Paradox
A paradox in literature refers to the use of concepts or ideas that are contradictory to one another, yet, when placed together hold significant value on several levels.
‘The apparent delight with which we dwell upon objects of pure terror’ (Aikin) in talks of the heart’s paradox.
