More surprising and interesting, however, is the idea that even in the 18th century, readers had a preference for a true story over a fictional one. Somehow I was unaware that Walpole claimed to have found the manuscript for Otranto, but that makes perfect sense given similar claims by authors at the time such as MacPherson claiming to have discovered the Ossian poems he published in It is also interesting because the claim that the first Gothic novel is a historical manuscript helps to explain why the Gothic really was the forerunner of the historical novel that we have today.
Thanks as always for the great information. Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address. Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.
Share this: Tweet. Like this: Like Loading Charlotte Evans May 3, at pm. Paula Cappa April 28, at pm. Great times, fabulous stories : Loading Lady Fancifull April 28, at am. Mark Wallace April 28, at am. Norah April 27, at pm. Sierra April 27, at pm. Bruce Goodman April 27, at pm. Ola Allam April 27, at pm. Shawn April 27, at pm. That is very interesting. I learned something new today, thank you.
The Story Reading Ape April 27, at pm. Always found The Castle of Otranto a bit odd. Enjoyable, but odd. And me. Through sensations of pain and pleasure associated with experiencing the beautiful and the sublime in art and life, individuals exercise and develop their mental and spiritual capacities.
Beauty, then, is associated with the pleasurable, the social, domestic, and feminine, while the sublime, with power, masculinity, danger, fear, and even delight if the danger does not threaten destruction. On the other hand, progressive elements recognized its capacity for mounting political and cultural critiques precisely by representing the Catholic Church and divine-rights monarchy as source and symbol of all that was bad in English history.
These events resulted in large part from the agitations arising from demands for increased individual liberty and autonomy. The American Revolution from , the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of , the Regency Crisis of , the storming of the Bastille in , the French Revolution from , and the Reign of Terror from , and a rapidly advancing industrial and capitalist economy supplied crises with which the people of England dealt daily along with cultural upheavals that resulted in the categorical instability that Michael McKeon and, more recently, Ian Haywood, describe as characteristic of the preoccupations that informed eighteenth-century fiction , The period surrounding the last Jacobite rebellion in , and with it the end of the threat of the re-emergence of an English Catholic monarchy, witnessed a surge in anti-Catholic sentiment which persisted in various forms.
Anti-Catholic sentiment revived and strengthened during the years of the revolutionary foreign wars, culminating, along with fears of invasion, in a pervasive conservative backlash to the events of the French Revolution. The emergence of Gothic fiction during this era is often seen as an expression of the massive dislocation and threats to security that characterized political and cultural experience during this time in the form of coded critiques of power and domination at a time when direct political critique was punished as treason.
The atmosphere in the American colonies was no less volatile as the First Continental Congress began calling for the liberation of America from England. Gothic novels and dramas from England appealed to American audiences because they provided sensationalist entertainment but also because they narrated stories of vulnerability and conflict with which the young nation could identify. Instability and insecurity prevailed on both sides of the Atlantic as citizens of England and America experienced conditions of uncertainty and confusion that in themselves could only be described as Gothic.
Gothic fiction and drama, then, arose within the context of profound cultural turmoil. Critics have argued a number of angles from which the Gothic may be considered, citing the influence of a steadily rising middle class in England and America as well as a need for relatively safe forms of transgression as a method of questioning laws and morality that were seen by many as oppressive and an outcome of the conservative backlash that attended the revolutions and other less violent but nonetheless turbulent changes.
However, Gothic fiction did more than just react to these revolutions, it also projected ideal forms of citizenship and social relations that would result in a stable society that fostered well-being.
The Gothic did precisely that, critiquing the forces that destabilized society while presenting characters who could morally uplift the world. Though novels and drama enjoyed success in the decades preceding the eighteenth century, a single genre had never before garnered so much attention in itself.
One of the ways that the Gothic could safely and effectively comment on contested aspects of English society, such as politics, education, religion, gender, and class in this era of instability was to position its critiques in terms of historically and geographically distant events and locations.
Openly suggesting King George III was an insane autocrat would have been treason; however, commenting on the misdeeds of a foreign government or ruler from Italy or France two centuries earlier was perfectly acceptable.
The Gothic, with its seemingly stock characters and recycled scenes, is actually situated and dynamic, reflecting specific fears and uncertainties that characterize the cultural milieu from which the work arises. Davison asserts:. Gothic fiction not only contested patriarchal gender ideals, but it also threatened patriarchal control over those ideals through its immense success as a genre. Despite cautionary warnings of the dangerous effects of fiction and romance by the clergy and other concerned with moral degeneration in turbulent times, the increasing ease with which women were able to obtain and read romances made it impossible to diminish what E.
An additional form of support for the Gothic arose from then-current moral theories that sought to ally art to the cause of perfectibility, an important issue during the early years of the modern liberal project that involved rationalizing power and authority after regicide and abdication, particularly by way of supporting claims to individual autonomy.
Henry Home, Lord Kames , a judge in the supreme courts of Scotland and a prominent writer, disagreed with those who saw in fine art, including literature, threats to moral and social order. Building on moral sense theories regarding sympathy and benevolence, Kames defines ideal presence as a mode of being that occurs when one experiences sublimity and beauty and thus becomes susceptible to moral improvement. Kames credits ideal presence with the power to solidify social bonds:.
In appearance at least, what can be more slight than ideal presence? He suggests, then, that art has a distinct role in producing moral effects. The cult-like adoration for the novel would change the course of Romantic literature and beyond. In the late years of the 19th century, nearing the end of the Victorian period, Gothic works experienced an unexpected surge, as the Gothic novel attained new meanings in the face of Victorian social constraints and the rise of industrialization.
Jekyll and Mr. These Victorian writers used the Gothic novel as a platform to criticize the rampant hypocrisy of Victorian society. As well as social commentaries, the books were literary achievements. Despite its origins over years ago, Gothicism has served as an inspiration to and continues to inspire literature, art, film, fashion and pop culture. Works Cited. Grace is a senior and returning staff member.
She enjoys writing articles pertaining to literature and theatre. Victorian literature. Shakespearean comedy. Shakespeare editions. Applying to university in Europe. Literary deaths.
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