Name ________________________
Gothic, Gothic, and More Gothic // AP American Literature
Poe is, usually, a writer of gothic fiction.
What are your associations with this term? That is to say, what do you know about it
already? Other gothic writers, common themes, et c.
Here is a section of literary criticism regarding the gothic novel (which, of course, applies to
short stories as well. As you’re reading, circle key words, take notes, et c. Also, be sure to check
definitions of words you don’t know. The annotation is part of your assessment on this packet.
from Harmon & Holman’s Handbook of Literature (10th edition)
[A gothic novel is a] novel in which magic, mystery, and chivalry are the chief characteristics.
Horrors abound: One may expect a suit of armor suddenly to come to life among ghosts,
clanking chains, and charnel houses. … Horace Walpole was the real originator, his famous
Castle of Otranto (1764) being the first. Its setting is a medieval castle with long underground
passages, trap doors, dark stairways, and mysterious rooms whose doors slam unexpectedly. …
[The emphasis is often] on setting and story rather than on character . . . The term today is applied to works . . . that lack the gothic setting or the medieval atmosphere but that attempt to create the same atmosphere of brooding and unknown terror . . . [also used to indicate] a literal setting … and a fantastic spirit combining horror, crime, romance, and realism.
from Douglas H. Thomson’s website1
Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto introduced the term "gothic story" to the literary world
in 1764. While it presented, at first, a topic for argument and inflammatory rhetoric, over the
years the gothic has come to be respected as a venerable albeit still controversial genre. However,
due to its inherently supernatural, surreal and sublime elements, it has maintained a dark and
mysterious appeal. Since 1764, many authors have followed in the footsteps of Walpole,
including such diverse names as Anne Radcliffe, Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker and Shirley
Jackson. This vide variety of viewpoints, however, is what makes one single, all-encompassing
definition of gothic literature so very difficult to ascertain.
So then, what is "the gothic"? Generally speaking, gothic literature delves into the macabre
nature of humanity in its quest to satiate mankind's intrinsic desire to plumb the depths of terror.
We offer seven descriptors that frequently appear in works called gothic: 1) the appearance of
the supernatural, 2) the psychology of horror and/or terror, 3) the poetics of the sublime, 4) a
sense of mystery and dread 5) the appealing hero/villain, 6) the distressed heroine, and 7) strong
moral closure (usually at least).
1
http://personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~dougt/goth.html
from Cuddon’s Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 4th ed. (1999)
Most Gothic novels are tales of mystery and horror, intended to chill the spine and curdle the
blood. They contain a strong element of the supernatural and have all or most of the now
familiar topography, sites, props, presences, and happenings: wild and desolate landscapes, dark
forests, ruined abbeys, feudal halls and medieval castles with dungeons, secret passages, winding
stairways, oubliettes2, sliding panels, and torture chambers; monstrous apparitions and curses; a
stupefying atmosphere of doom and gloom. …
The last thirty-odd years of the 18th century and the first twenty to thirty years of the 19th century
are marked by quite important changes in the ways people thought and felt about the
metaphysical and the preternatural and also what they felt about such matters as madness, states
of fear, extremes of violence, crime, torture, and murder. It is as if, after a long period of
rationalism and apparent mental, spiritual, and psychological stability, the rediscovery of ‘old
worlds’ and, more especially, the rediscovery of the world of supernatural or quasi-supernatural
evil, had a strong disruptive and purgative effect. A whole bag of tricks was opened up, a
veritable Pandora’s box. Out of it came devils, wizards, trolls, hobgoblins, werewolves, vampires,
doppelgängers – and what not? None of this had any place in the ‘Age of Reason’. Nor for that
matter had Satanism, possession, black magic, sorcery, exorcism, or diabolic pacts
2
oubliette: a secret dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its ceiling
Now, synthesize the above and compose a brief definition of “Gothic literature” with a list of at least three (3) conventions of the Gothic here: Now, read and annotate what Poetry Foundation’s website has to say about Poe’s work:3
Aside from a common theoretical basis, there is a psychological intensity that is characteristic of
Poe’s writings, especially the tales of horror that comprise his best and best-known works. These
stories—which include “The Black Cat,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Tell-Tale
Heart”—are often told by a first-person narrator, and through this voice Poe probes the workings
of a character’s psyche. This technique foreshadows the psychological explorations of Fyodor
Dostoyevsky and the school of psychological realism. In his Gothic tales, Poe also employed an
essentially symbolic, almost allegorical method which gives such works as “The Fall of the
House of Usher,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “Ligeia” an enigmatic quality that
accounts for their enduring interest and also links them with the symbolical works of Nathaniel
Hawthorne and Herman Melville. 3
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/edgar-allan-poe
Big question: Based on Poetry Foundation’s discussion of Poe’s work and what you have read (in AP American Literature and, if relevant, before this class), please discuss how Poe adheres to or deviates from the earlier definition of Gothic fiction.