Symbolism In Gothic Literature
Gothic literature is the succession of romantic literature and a genre that particularly covers the period of time from approximately 1764 to 1840 although it has been prominent until this day. It emerged in England but expeditiously spread to France and Germany to finally pervade almost the whole world. As Jerrold Hogle writes:
…it exploded in the 1790s (the decade Walpole died) throughout the British Isles, on the continent of Europe, and briefly in the new United States, particularly for a female readership, so much so that it remained a popular, if controversial, literary mode throughout what we still call the Romantic period in European literature. (Hogle 2002: 1)
To the most outstanding and representative writers from these times belong:
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Early Gothic texts were typically set in continental Europe (especially in France and Italy) because of the supposed differences of beliefs between Southern Europeans and the British. What is more, political implications as well as religious denominations played a significant role in selecting locations for Gothic fiction, since countries with the feudal, Catholic past were perceived as wild and exotic, whereas protestant Great Britain with the developing democracy as rational. According to Reeve (2012: 233): “Gothic is an allusion to or characteristic of the Middle Ages, or, more obliquely, the ‘mediaeval’ or ‘romantic’, both of which are positioned as opposites to the classical”. Pseudo-medieval texts include frequently high feelings, supernatural creatures or events, touches of romance together with such motifs as damsel in distress or woman treated by a tyrannical male. This particular style is not rarely characterised by terror, which involves an atmosphere provoking fear, capturing the reader’s imagination (although literally nothing happens) and horror, which entails an earthy, gory, violent presentation of the macabre. A combination of at least some of the above-mentioned elements is commonly found in Gothic literature and makes a work truly
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