What is Gothic? The Level of Difficulty Will Shock You.

What is Gothic, and why isn’t it? When used to describe literary works, gothic connotes an air of mystery, terror, and melancholy. Romance and horror meet in Gothic literature. Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, and Charlotte Bront are a few well-known Gothic fiction writers.

Goth isn’t just a fad. You can’t help but be it, or you don’t. People who claim, “Oh, I was Goth,” baffle me. Perhaps they acted the role for a time to fit in, but that’s not something you get over! Likes and dislikes don’t magically transform into something else overnight. 

What is Gothic?

Someone who sees the beauty in what others would see as gloomy is called a Goth. Dark and mysterious things are their favourites. The fact that Goths see things from a different angle than other people doesn’t make them bad people.

 Furthermore, this in no way implies that Goths are cruel, aggressive, or humorously dimwitted; on the contrary, it is completely accurate. Although goths like a good belly laugh, their humour leans toward dark comedy. 

They find joy and inspiration in gloomy things; therefore, it’s not that they’re melancholy. Gothic realists tend to be witty, passionate, and intellectual. What makes someone a Goth is not their clothing choice. 

Most accounts of Goth culture state that its adherents mostly wear black and that it emerged in the late 1970s as a punk subculture. I disagree. Goth wasn’t born in the 1970s; it was always there; what changed was the adoption of the word “Gothic” to characterise the new bands that emerged around that time.

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Individuals and their languages

• A term used to describe several East Germanic peoples, the “Goths” or “Gothic people.”
• Gothic, the language of the Goths, is a kind of East Germanic that is now extinct.
• Gothic script was formerly used to write the Gothic language; Crimean Gothic, the language spoken by the Crimean Goths; and the Gothic alphabet, which is now extinct.
• A set of Unicode letters representing the Gothic alphabet

Design and the arts

• The style known as Gothic art emerged throughout the Middle Ages.
• Gothic style
• Neo-Gothic style of Gothic Revival
• Carpenter Classical Gothic Victorian Gothic Gothic
• Raygun William Gibson first used “gothic” in 1981 to describe a specific type of retrofuturist art.

The style of romance

• The Gothic genre of literature The literary style known as Romanticism
• Entertainment
• The 1986 Ken Russell film Gothic
• The Gothic video game series was created by Piranha Bytes. The games in the series include Gothic, which was released in 2001; Gothic II, which was released in 2002; gothic II: Night of the Raven, an expansion pack for Gothic II, which was released in 2003; Gothic 3, which was released in 2006, and Gothic, which is set to be remade by Alkimia Interactive shortly.
• Psychedelic horror thriller Gothikawas released in 2003 in the United States.

Culture and lifestyle in the modern era

• A subculture of gothic music and culture
• Music
• The musical style is known as “gothic rock.”
• Heavy metal music, known as Gothic metal
• “The Gothic” (Brian), Havergal’s first symphony. The following albums by Brian Gothic: 1991’s Paradise Lost and 2015’s Nox Arcana
• Blackletter fonts, which resemble mediaeval scribal writing and were historically employed throughout Central and Western Europe, are occasionally referred to as “Gothic” inappropriately.
• Sans-serif or Gothic fonts are characterized by their simplicity and the absence of decorative “serifs” at the end of each stroke.
• The Gothic style of East Asia, the “sans-serif” alternative used in East Asian scripts
• Gothic or block letters are a way of writing alphabets and abjads in which each character is a separate glyph and not joined together.
• Transport
• A White Star Line ship named S.S. Gothic in 1893 and a Corinthic-class passenger and freight liner named S.S. Gothic in 1947
• Another kind of nighttime gothic moth
• One such defensive line from WWII is the Gothic Line.
• The Adirondack Mountains in New York, known as the Gothics, and the Norwich, England, football team, Gothic F.C.

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The modern art trend is known as “New Gothic.”

• Batman: Gothic, a story arc from the 1990s D.C. Comics,
• As seen in the 2010 episode “Gothic” from Series G of the T.V. show Q.I., Gothic plate armour was popular in the 15th century.
• Gothic style
• Gothic architecture, a European style that emerged in the middle of the 12th century and persisted until the 16th, is defined by massive, vaulted ceilings and walls decorated with intricate tracery patterns.

Cathedral of Reims Some Examples

Construction on the inside of France’s Reims Cathedral began in 1211.

• Engineers could construct ever more colossal structures throughout the 12th and 13th centuries.
•  Building a tall structure while conserving as much natural light as possible was made feasible using the rib vault, flying buttress, and pointed (Gothic) arch.
•  Surprising effects of sun-dappled interiors were generated by stained-glass window panels. 
• The abbey of Saint-Denis in Paris (c. 1135–44) was one of the first structures to integrate these features into a unified style. 
• Chartres Cathedral ushered in the High Gothic period (c. 1250-1300), during which France exerted considerable influence, particularly via the growth of the Rayonnant style. 
• Italian Gothic was distinct from its counterparts in Germany, Spain, and Britain because it used brick and marble instead of stone.
•  German vaulted hall churches were the pinnacle of Late Gothic style in the 15th century. 
• The Flamboyant style of France and Spain and the British Perpendicular style are further examples of late Gothic architecture.

Gothic Architecture

“Gothic” means what? There’s more to it than meets the eye.

Some of the most recognisable structures in the world include Middle Eastern and European influences that are difficult to see at first glance.

Everyone knew that the famous twin tower and rose window of France’s finest Gothic cathedral were copied from a Syrian church in Qalb Loze built in the fifth century, according to architectural historian Diana Darke, who tweeted after the fire that devastated the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in April 2019. 

• The response to the East-West trade in architectural ideas, which historians have established as a well-known channel of influence, shocked Darke. Some have long maintained that the Gothic style owes much of its distinctiveness to Middle Eastern Islamic architecture.
•  Islamic architecture is evident in the pointed arches of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, the rose windows of Notre Dame Cathedral, and the soaring pinnacles of London’s Palace of Westminster.
• (Notre Dame Cathedral rebuilds three years after a catastrophic fire.)
• However, these contributions were disregarded in the early 19th century, and Gothic was hailed as uniquely Northern European. The term “Gothic” was first used in Britain during the renaissance of this mediaeval style of building. 
• Instead of seeing Gothic as an ugly, primitive style, the Revivalists saw it as a symbol of American patriotism and national pride.
• By delving into the rich histories of some of Europe’s most famous landmarks, tourists may view these famous sites in a different light and realise that the “East-West divide” isn’t as wide as it seems.

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The Gothic Revival in England

A hallmark of Victorian England’s imperial might, Gothic Revival architecture revived designs from Europe’s most illustrious mediaeval churches, such as Notre Dame in Paris and Westminster Abbey in London.

(These cathedrals are exceptional, ranking among the best in Europe.)

Some examples of its ostentatious layering of arches can be seen on the sweeping 1873 façade of the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London. Pancras train station, as well as the 1872 Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, which was constructed to commemorate the Queen’s beloved consort.

Augustus Pugin, the leading English Gothic Revival enthusiast, defended the style by saying it was a Christian architectural movement that rejected pagan practices like praticadas.

 In 1851, prominent tastemaker John Ruskin contended that it manifested a northern European sensibility indicative of wild and untamed peoples such as the Goths. The Gothic Revival style represented stability, tradition, and order in a chaotic world.

The architect John Carter of the nineteenth century thought Gothic was “a barbarous appellation” and advocated for the name “English” instead. Carter proclaimed Gothic architecture “our National Architecture,” with its roots in centuries of history when the United States was engaged in a protracted conflict with revolutionary France.

 It was inevitable that the Gothic style would be used to rebuild the Palace of Westminster after a fire devastated it in 1834. On the other hand, many people could still tell that Gothic had originated in the East, even during the peak of the Victorian Gothic Revival.

The Impact of Islam on Gothic

The neo-classical St. Paul’s Cathedral, London’s most recognizable landmark, was to be reconstructed by architect Christopher Wren in 1673 after the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed the original mediaeval Gothic structure. 

Symmetrical towers around the west front entry portico had twelve columns below and eight above. It is a mathematical marvel, logical and orderly.

 Wren rejected the illogical and imbalanced “Gothick,” which he claimed should be renamed “Saracenic.”

Middle Ages Europeans used the name “Saracen” to describe all Muslims from Arab countries. Religious buildings and palace complexes across vast swaths of the Islamic East are characterised by pointed arches, ribbed roofs, domes, rose windows, and minaret towers;

 Wren speculates that Western Europeans fighting against the expansion of Islamic states in the Middle East first beheld these features during the Crusades (from 1096 to 1291).

 Following the Crusaders’ return, new church gateways featured what Wren called the “sharp-heeled arch,” while minarets inspired spires and bell towers in cathedrals.

(Lasers help this historian decipher the secrets of Gothic cathedrals.)

• Despite Wren’s criticism of the pointed arch’s design in Gothic architecture for lack of “proportion, use, or beauty,” he continued to look to the East for inspiration for St. Paul’s most impressive feature—its magnificent dome. 
• The domes of ancient mosques in the Middle East, like Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock (finished in 691), serve as roofs over the sacred places within.
• To counter Wren’s claim, Gothic revivalists toiled away. They claimed that the foreign influence was neo-classicism, which originated in Greece or Rome. But Wren was right about the past.
• Islamic influence was also visible in various aspects of the design. 
• The Great Exhibition in 1851 celebrated the global spread of the British Empire. Designer Owen Jones painted the inside of London’s Crystal Palace, constructed for the event, in vivid hues borrowed from the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. 
• He believes the Islamic palace was the pinnacle of human architectural achievement. Although Jones’s selections initially caused controversy, they incorporated Moorish styles and polychromatic Eastern structures into English design.
• The influence quickly spread from public and holy areas into the business sphere. Another influence from Middle Eastern covered marketplaces and bazaars is the English department store, an integral aspect of the opulent Victorian shopping experience.

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The Dynamic Relationship Between Western and Eastern

The East and West still have much to say to one other creatively. Among the highly esteemed buildings nominated for the Stirling Prize in 2021 was Marks Barfield Architects’ stunning Central Mosque in Cambridge.

• Like complex tree branches, the main prayer hall’s hardwood ceiling beams extend upward and outward. The ribbed ceilings of Gothic churches arose from “northern people having been accustomed, during the gloom of paganism, to worship the deity in groves.
• ” Bishop William Warburton, in 1760, put out this notion, which is thought to echo it. Roof ribbing originated in Eastern construction solutions. Therefore, this was all conjecture.
• Like the Gothic Revival cathedral, this contemporary mosque design alludes to several architectural styles resulting from complex cultural exchange.
•  Brilliant hybrids and fusions are born from these patterns of reciprocal interaction. For ideologically driven thinkers, East and West are inherently at odds. However, many of the places we pass through daily show a far more hopeful past.

The Gothic Canon in Literature

Gothic literature, in its broadest sense, is literature that uses macabre and beautiful settings, shocking and dramatic narrative techniques, and an overarching sense of exoticism, mystery, terror, and dread. 

Gothic literature and stories frequently centre on a massive, old mansion harbouring a dark secret or providing sanctuary to a terrifying antagonist.

Gothic authors have entertained readers with various techniques, including the employment of supernatural aspects, romance, well-known historical figures, and adventure stories, despite the prevalent usage of this gloomy pattern. 

Much modern writing draws from this style, a subgenre of Romantic literature (the time in question, not the romance books depicting swooning lovers with tousled hair on the cover).

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Progress in the Field

Gothic literature emerged during Britain’s Romantic Period. The first literary reference to “Gothic” appears in the 1765 subtitle of Horace Walpole’s “The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story.” The author was supposedly making a subtle joke about how the word “Gothic” meant “barbarous” and “deriving from the Middle Ages.

” The book claims that the narrative was long thought to be lost until it was rediscovered. However, that is only a portion of the story.

However, a new genre was born from the story’s supernatural components and became quite popular throughout Europe. Until American Edgar Allan Poe nailed it in the middle of the nineteenth century. 

He discovered a safe space to investigate mental sickness, human depravity, and psychological trauma in Gothic literature. Stephen King novels, zombie stories, and detective stories set in the present era all have Edgar Allan Poe to thank. 

While other authors may have achieved literary success in the Gothic subgenre, none could match Poe’s mastery of the form.

Notable Gothic Authors

• Among the most prominent and well-liked Gothic authors of the eighteenth century are Horace Walpole (1765), Ann Radcliffe (1794), Matthew Lewis (1796), and Charles Brockden Brown (1798).
• Romantic writers like Sir Walter Scott (1829, The Tapestried Chamber) and Victorian authors like Robert Louis Stevenson (1886, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) and Bram Stoker (1897, Dracula) both used Gothic elements in their horror and suspense stories, so the genre continued to attract readers well into the nineteenth century.
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831 in French), and numerous Edgar Allan Poe stories, like “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) and “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843), all contain Gothic elements.

How It Has Shaped Modern Fiction

Ghost stories, detective fiction, suspense novels, thrillers, and other modern literary genres centred on mystery, shock, and sensation have largely supplanted Gothic literature in recent decades. 

While there is some Gothic influence in all of these forms, novelists and poets may have appropriated and altered the Gothic genre without necessarily writing in a Gothic style.

Misreading Gothic literature may lead to immaturity and misunderstandings, which Jane Austen adoringly displayed in Northanger Abbey. Absalom, 

The Sound and the Fury are two examples of experimental stories. William Faulkner brought Gothic themes to the American South, including haunted houses, family secrets, and doomed love. 

Gabriel García Márquez weaves a violent and surreal tale in his multi-generational memoir One Hundred Years of Solitude, centred around a family home that becomes a sinister personality.

Connections to Gothic Style

The links between Gothic literature and Gothic architecture are significant, albeit occasionally contradictory. The Gothic style is known for its evocative use of shadows, fissures, and carvings to evoke feelings of mystery and doom, and Gothic buildings frequently played this role in Gothic literature.

Some Gothic authors also tried their hand at building, and their works often aimed to evoke strong feelings in readers. Strawberry Hill, another Gothic mansion by Horace Walpole, was fanciful and reminiscent of a castle.

FAQs

Give me four things that define Gothic literature.

For a book to be considered Gothic, it must adhere to four key criteria. Some of these features include a dark atmosphere, certain kinds of characters, and plot points that centre on themes like evil, justice, dread, and retribution.

In literature, what is the meaning of the term Gothic?

Gothic is a literary style defined by dark and ominous surroundings, supernatural aspects, suspense, and terror. It has existed since the late 18th century and is still used today.

Does Harry Potter fit the gothic genre?

The Harry Potter books contain numerous gothic aspects. These include a gloomy and ominous atmosphere (Hogwarts), the otherworldly (magic), and nightmares and visions (Harry’s link to Voldemort).

Can you tell me the ten characteristics of gothic literature?

Although Gothic literature has many traits, many works share a few. A gloomy environment and romance are among these aspects. Eerie phenomena, irrational beliefs and actions, female victims, otherworldly beings, dark clouds, curses, and ominous forecasts.

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