The Gothic Library is a gothic book blog catering to all dark-minded readers looking to indulge their macabre imagination with a delightfully dreary tome. One of the great things about the gothic subculture is its literary and intellectual nature. Goth has its roots in the Gothic literature movement of the late 1700s and 1800s. Since then, gothic literature has diversified and spawned new genres such as Southern Gothic, horror, dark fantasy, and paranormal romance. The Gothic Library is here to bring you news, reviews, and more from these genres and others that might be of interest to the dark-minded among us.
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So impressed by your website! I’m not sure if this is my genre, but your suggestions sound intriguing. I will definitely give it a try!
Question – do you know what defines gothic literature from an academic aspect? Have you studied the subject that it inspired you to create this blog? I’d really like to hear from you 🙂
Hi Ravenclaw, great question!
I’m of the firm opinion that it’s really impossible to encompass all of Gothic literature in an easy, one-sentence definition and I think the academic community has largely found the same. So there’s not really an agreed-upon “one true definition,” and “what defines the Gothic” is always a lengthy (and sometimes contentious) discussion! That’s part of what I set out to answer when I created this blog.
I only briefly encountered Gothic literature in an academic setting–one of my college British Literature classes touched on the 18th-century Gothic novel, and I’d read many of the 19th-century classics in high school. But I didn’t really find my passion for the subject until after I graduated.
Though I frequently engage with scholars who have studied the Gothic in an official academic capacity (especially my friends at romancingthegothic.com!), I’ve pursued my interest in the subject mainly on my own, outside of any academic institutions. In fact, I largely created this blog in order to motivate myself to do the kind of reading, research, and critical thinking about the subject that I would otherwise be doing in the classroom.
Great review of What Moves the Dead! I suggested it as a source for my thesis student writing on Jane Eyre and Mexican Gothic.
Great review of What Moves the Dead! I just suggested it as a source for my student writing a thesis on Jane Eyre and Mexican Gothic. Thanks for validating my opinion there is a developing subgenre of mushroom gothic that, in my opinion, is matching the interest of celebrities and other elites are showing in hallucinogens, micro dosings, etc.