TYPES OF GOTHIC LITERATURE

EQ: HOW CAN I IDENTIFY THE DIFFERENT

“FLAVORS”?

ORIGINAL: BRITISH/EUROPEAN GOTHIC• TIME/PLACE . . . CASTLES, DUNGEONS

• ROMANCE (UNRETURNED LOVE, RIVALS, POSSIBLE LOVE)

• THREATENING MYSTERY

• ANCESTRAL CURSE

• HIDDEN PASSAGES

• OFT-FAINTING HEROINES

• TYRANNICAL MALE OF POWER (INCLUDING SEXUAL POWER)

• SUPERNATURAL/REAL

• SUBLIME

• CRISIS

• UNCANNY

NEXT: AMERICAN GOTHIC• RATIONAL VS IRRATIONAL (INSANITY)

• PURITANISM (HELL, DEVIL)

• GUILT (ANTIHERO)

• DAS UNHEIMLICHE (STRANGENESS WITHIN THE FAMILIAR)

• ABHUMANS, GHOSTS, MONSTERS

• DOMESTIC ABJECTION (ONE DOMINATES ANOTHER)

• PAST RIDDLED WITH SLAVERY

• FEAR OF RACIAL MIXING (MISCEGENATION)

• HOSTILE NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS & THEIR SUBSEQUENT GENOCIDE

• THE DAUNTING WILDERNESS OR CAVES; HAUNTED HOUSES/SECRET PASSAGES

• AMERICAN GOTHIC IS OFTEN DEVOID OF CASTLES AND OBJECTS, WHICH ALLUDE TO A CIVILIZED HISTORY.

CLOSEST TO HOME & MODERN: SOUTHERN GOTHIC

• DISTURBING OR ECCENTRIC CHARACTERS: OFTEN FROM SOUTHERN ARISTOCRACY/PLANTATION

• VOODOO

• AMBIVALENT GENDER ROLES (NON-TRADITIONAL)

• TIME/PLACE: DECAYED OR DERELICT SETTINGS 

• GROTESQUE SITUATIONS (WARPED/PERVERTED)

• SINISTER EVENTS RELATING TO OR COMING FROM POVERTY, ALIENATION, CRIME, AND VIOLENCE

• SOUTH PORTRAYED AS DYING, OFTEN BY ITS OWN GUILT