Y8 Tier 2 & 3 Vocabulary: Gothic Writing

Question 1

Grotesque

Answer 1

An adjective used to describe something that’s at once mysterious, ugly, hard to understand, and distorted: Gothic churches are full of devils and grotesque figures.

Question 2

Claustrophobia

Answer 2

the fear of having no escape, and being closed into a small space: The churning, pressing crowds made her feel claustrophobic.

Question 3

Sensibility

Answer 3

Exaggerated or heightened emotional states or characters. Her sensibility hindered her ability to sleep alone in the castle.

Question 4

Arcane

Answer 4

Secret; mysterious; abstruse. Her interest lies in the arcane rituals of ancient peoples.

Question 5

Somnambulism

Answer 5

An abnormal condition of sleep in which people get up and walk around while sleeping: Some people have managed to walk around their neighborhood without even knowing it because of somnambulism.

Question 6

Uncanny

Answer 6

Seeming to have a supernatural character or origin; eerie, mysterious: She has an uncanny knack of foreseeing trouble.

Question 7

Memento Mori

Answer 7

Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’; reminder of death: On either side the rusting skeletons of dead trucks lined the route like a line of memento mori.

Question 8

Unreliable Narrator

Answer 8

An untrustworthy fictional character: The unreliable narrator is an untrustworthy storyteller who often uses the first-person point of view.

Question 9

Framed Narrative

Answer 9

A story within a story, within sometimes yet another story.

Question 10

Sublime

Answer 10

An experience of awe that is both terrifying and pleasurable: The Gothic explores experiences that produce complex emotions, such as experiences of the sublime.