Resources for Gothic Literature
The period for Gothic Literature is generally dated from 1764
to 1840. The popularity of gothic novels and dramas proliferated during the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in Britain when England found
itself in the midst of a social upheaval. It is out of this social climate
that the Gothic novel grew: a new and fearful genre for a new and fearful
time. At the very beginning, it was dismissed as mindless, decadent, or too
excessively antirational. It was not highly respected by its contemporary
critics or by later literary scholars and academics. Gothicism featured accounts
of terrifying experiences in ancient castles — experiences connected
with subterranean dungeons, secret passageways, flickering lamps,
screams, moans, bloody hands, ghosts, graveyards, and the rest. By extension,
it came to designate the macabre, mysterious, fantastic, supernatural, and,
again, the terrifying. Some of the most notable writers of the period were
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe.
This site has a general overview of Gothic Literature, as well as links to different authors, resources, and Gothic texts.
This is a great site that contains Gothic courses, reading list, as well as text. It also highlights three different types of Gothic literature, it also contains a bibliography and a discussion board.
This webpage breaks down many of the major motifs used in Gothic Literature. It discusses the themes and the origins of what many consider "Gothic."
This site defines many of the Literary Gothic terms, it also goes in great
detail of the use of the particular term in Gothic Literature. There is also
a really good work cited page listed on the site for future reference.
Links to the Other Perspectives