‘Tis the gift-giving season! As the days grow cold and dark here in the northern hemisphere, giving your loved ones presents for the holidays can be an excellent way to warm each other’s hearts. But if you’re living in a Gothic story, you should probably be wary of any gifts you receive…. What seems like a gift often turns out to be a curse instead. Here are a few of my favorite examples of ill-fated gifts in Gothic literature:
Usually, when discussing tropes in Gothic literature, I talk about certain recurring themes and plot elements (such as madness, prophecies, or burning houses) or character types (like the Creepy Housekeeper, Corrupted Clergy, or First Wife). But the genre also makes use of particular structural or stylistic techniques. One of my favorite stylistic tropes in Gothic literature is the found document framing device.
Continue reading Gothic Tropes: Found Document Framing Device
As Gothic fiction rose to prominence during the height of British imperialism, it should come as no surprise that both fear of and fascination with foreign cultures would seep into the literature of this time period. Orientalism was pretty entrenched in all genres of English literature during this era, but the significance of the Other made it especially appealing to writers of Gothic fiction. The Other is a person whose identity can be defined in opposition to the Self, and is thus a convenient target on which to project fears, taboos, and other unknowns. In this case, the inhabitants of the East (Turks, Arabs, Indians, the Chinese, and others in between) differed from the average English reader in race, in culture, and often also in religion. Set among these differences, unspeakable evil, unknowable magic, and improbable events gained more weight and credulity. What might seem unbelievable in England could very well take place in a faraway land with strange people. In this way, cursed Indian treasures, tyrannical Arabian leaders, and mysterious Eastern mystics became staples of the Gothic genre.
I talk a lot about how modern horror fiction and paranormal romance have descended from the classic Gothic novel. Well, detective stories are yet another example of a popular genre that rose up from this immensely fecund area of fiction. Many of the earliest detective stories were written by authors of Gothic fiction, or otherwise incorporated Gothic elements. In fact, detective fiction is a relatively young genre, and its origin is generally accredited to one of the greatest gothy patriarchs of all—Edgar Allan Poe. Continue reading Is Sherlock Goth???—Detective Fiction and the Gothic
Today is my final day of the 3 Days, 3 Quotes Challenge! Thanks again to Wandering Words for nominating me.
Day 3’s quote is from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, generally considered to be the beginning of the modern mystery/detective genre:
We had our breakfasts—whatever happens in a house, robbery or murder, it doesn’t matter, you must have your breakfast.
