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GOTHIC TIMELINE Flashcards

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1
Q

name the 7 stages of the gothic timeline in order

A
  • protogothic
  • early gothic
  • high gothic
  • late gothic
  • victorian gothic
  • modern gothic
  • postmodern gothic
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2
Q

what does the proto-gothic include?

A
  • shakespeare
  • graveyard poetry
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3
Q

what is graveyard poetry?

A

a genre of 18th-century British poetry characterized by somber, meditative reflections on mortality, death, and the afterlife, often set in graveyards at night
- unnamed characters/narrators

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4
Q

which authors are highlighted in the early gothic?

A
  • walople
  • Radcliffe
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5
Q

which authors are highlighted in the high gothic?

A
  • radcliffe
  • lewis
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6
Q

which authors are highlighted in the late gothic?

A
  • Shelley
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7
Q

which authors are highlighted in each stage of the victorian gothic?

A
  • early: Bronte, dickens
  • mid: more dickens
  • late: stoker, wells, stevenson
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8
Q

what was the timeline for the early gothic?

A

1764-1788

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9
Q

what was the timeline for the high gothic?

A

1788-1800

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10
Q

what was the timeline for the late gothic?

A

1800-1838

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11
Q

what was the timeline for the victorian gothic?

A

1830s-1910s

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12
Q

what was the timeline for the modern gothic?

A

1914-1970s

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13
Q

what was the timeline for the postmodern gothic?

A

1970s-present

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14
Q

what are the typical features of the early gothic?

A

terror, excess, supernatural, imprisonment, satanic bargaining, castles, forests, destruction, disruption, immortality, dread, irrational violence, women under threat, tyranny, patriarchal oppression, sexuality, corruption, medieval, catholicism, ghosts, demons

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15
Q

when was neoclassicism in effect and what was it?

A

neoclassicism = the deliberate revival of ancient Greco-Roman culture – for example, architecture, which emphasised grandness of style, content, order, proportion, symmetry
- in effect: protogothic influences

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16
Q

how did the age of enlightenment influence the protogothic?

A
  • new political and social ideas: rationalism over faith (explored through “dark” religious institutions, such as the corruption of and horror set in Catholic) convents/monasteries, opposition to heirarchy (corrupt tyrants, decadent nobles, and ruined castles that symbolize the decay of feudalism), individualism
  • scientific revolution challenged traditional religious beliefs about creation
  • Rousseau’s social contract
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17
Q

what was Rousseau’s social contract?

A

the idea that society corrupts the naturally good individual

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18
Q

what are the main tropes of the protogothic?

A
  • gloomy atmosphere
  • spaces of death
  • mixing pleasure and terror
  • psychological complexity
  • ghosts, supernatural, curses
  • modernity
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19
Q

explain Burkes sublime

A

the idea that a sense of awe and almost pleasure can be experienced through terrifying experiences provided by the sublime
e.g. the power of nature revealing the fickle/meaningless of human existence

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20
Q

what are the key tropes within the early gothic?

A
  • aristocratic characters
  • ambiguous range of locations
  • villains doing monstrous things
  • presence of the consciously antiquated past
  • melodrama
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21
Q

which gothic tropes did Walpoles ‘castle of Otrnato’ encourage?

A
  • aristocratic characters (Manfred)
  • villains doing monstrous things (Manfred)
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22
Q

what tropes can be found within Walpole’s ‘castle of Otranto’

A

TROPES: sinister aristocrat / the castle / supernatural events / mediaevalism / focus on central Europe (see picture for its front
matter) ​

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23
Q

what ‘battle’ was there within the gothic from 1788-1813?

A

terror vs horror

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24
Q

norton

A

“agents and incidents of terror in this stream are usually internal, whereas the agents and incidents of horror in the Lewis School are usually external.”

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25
norton 'the former'
“The former is characterised by mystery and corner-of-the-eye creepiness, whereas the latter is characterized by violence… in the former we are invited to wonder if the events are not really in the mind of the narrator
26
who featured 'the explained supernatural'? which gothic era was this in?
- anne radcliffe - high gothic - 1788-1813
27
what are the key tropes of the high gothic?
- anti-Catholicism - almost-violation of female ingenue - horror/violation - visually repulsive monsters - central/southern European settings - sidesteps the revolutions by setting the novels earlier than their present day - supernatural - explained supernatural - middle class female leadership
28
in which era was the grotesque in fashion?
the high gothic
29
when was the byronic hero trope established?
high gothic
30
list some of the main romantic poets
- wordsworth - keats - percy shelley - coleridge - byron - blake
31
when was medievalism?
pregothic
32
when was paradise lost written?
1667
33
how did paradise lost influence the gothic?
satan was presented more in depth - similar the evil villain that we see in the gothic e.g. charismatic, persuasive, vain, intelligent
34
how can we parallel to creature to Adam and Eve in millions paradise lost? how does the count oppose these both?
- born as adults - Adam politely but confidently persuades God to make him Eve with whom to share his joy living in Paradise – whereas the Creature persuasively, but aggressively, demands a female equal with whom to share his misery in exile -- Dracula does not persuade like Adam or demand like the Creature, but seduces women as ‘companions’, or physically overpowers them, perhaps explained by the contrast between larger-than-life Romantic characters vs fin-de-siècle anxiety
35
what does Rebecca Wilson argue about the creature and why?
- argues that the Creature represents the French Revolution, its rebellious nature, etc. - Shelley was influenced by The French Revolution of 1789 and the Napoleonic Wars of 1803-1815 - constant war when she grew up -- explicitly uses the language of human rights and social justice to demand a female creature – initially reacted to with horror
36
which book did Shelleys mother write?
a vindication of the rights of women - before 1818
37
in which stage of the gothic was romanticism?
high gothic
38
who wrote christabel and when?
Coleridge in 1816
39
who wrote la belle Dame Sans Merci? what is gothic about it?
keats pathologized love, the femme fatale, succubus, mystical setting, the forest, etc ​
40
what can gothic vs romanticism be related to from ancient greece?
the apolonian vs the Dionysian - apollonian = relating to the rational, ordered, and self-disciplined aspects of human nature - Dionysian = relating to the sensual, spontaneous, and emotional aspects of human nature. order vs chaos
41
in which gothic era did the industrial revolution 'pick up steam'?
late gothic
42
when was the French gothic?
late gothic
43
how can we link the creature to the castle of Otranto?
'the oversized spectre composed of dead fragments'
44
what are the main tropes of the late gothic?
- The Vampire (made transition from old European folklore to Gothic lit)​ - Visually grotesque monsters borne/corrupted from human beings ​ - Political revolution symbolised in texts ​ - Generally more engagement with contemporary political and scientific developments (e.g. in Frankenstein and French romans frenetiques)
45
how did the gothic change in the earlier victorian gothic?
- Britain is growing in power, self-confidence, imperial control, but not necessarily in social justice​ - Shift to British, but still rural settings - a careful sense of social proto-feminist radicalism within Christian moral constraints
46
when was the earlier victorian gothic?
1830s-1860s
47
in which gothic era where the Bronte sisters writing?
early victorian
48
which tropes did the bronte sisters inspire? give examples for each
- the attractive, moody, charismatic, magnetic Byronic hero who reforms (Jane Eyre) or destroys himself in hatred and guilt (Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights)​ - British settings, esp. rural – the Yorkshire moors in W.H - The monstrous feminine: Jane Eyre: Bertha Mason, the ethnically mixed ‘madwoman in the attic’
49
list the pre-gothic influences of the ingenue
The courtly lady waiting for the knight in chivalric romance, Juliet, Desdemona, Ophelia​
50
list the pre-gothic influences of the fallen woman
Eve, in Genesis, Hero (falsely) in Much Ado ​
51
list the pre-gothic influences of the femme fetal
Aphrodite/Venus, but also perhaps Artemis/Diana (although virgins, also goddesses of hunting. See the myth of Actaeon), Cleopatra in Shakespeare/real history, Salome in Biblical myth ​
52
list the pre-gothic influences of the monstrous feminine
Medusa, in Greek myth
53
when was dickens writing? what did he inspire?
early victorian gothic - shift to urban settings - London frequently depicted as overcrowded, polluted, crime-ridden
54
when was Darwinian evolution on the gothic timeline?
early Victorian (1859)
55
what was the significance of trains in the early Victorian gothic period?
Railways “annihilate time and distance”, tracks cuts through nature, literally
56
when was the mid victorian gothic?
1840s-70s
57
what were the main evolutions of the gothic in the mid victorian gothic?
- Continues Dickens’s significant shift to urban British settings, playing on growing middle and upper-class fears of the city as corrupt, crime-ridden, polluted - re-popularisation of Gothic partly via increased literacy, and the penny dreadful
58
what were penny dreadfuls?
The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts of 8 to 16 pages, each costing one penny - read for their crude thrills and shock value.
59
in which gothic era did ghosts become popular? why?
mid victorian gothic - short, cheap, generic - to satisfy the demand for gothic reading
60
what are the major tropes of the mid victorian gothic?
- Increasing popularisation of cheap, mass-produced Gothic fiction, matching spreading literacy ​ - Increasing focus on the changing female body as a kind of text, not merely abstract female virtue (Radcliffe) or physical violation (Lewis, Shelley) ​ - Gothic elements used in satirical non-Gothic, like Dickens ​ - More exploration of cities as corrupt, filthy but not necessarily as the middle class within them as so
61
when was the late victorian gothic?
1870s-1914
62
what anxieties were associated with the late victorian gothic?
drugs, sexuality, crime
63
what were the tropes of the late victorian gothic?
- middle class protagonists and villains, esp. scientists and lawyers come to the fore: Dracula, Dr Moreau, Dr Jekyll - elements of aristocracy still remain - the mad scientist - ideas of 'degeneration' - rise of Seances, Mysticism, Spiritualism - fear of drug addiction - the imperial gothic
64
when was the 'fin de siecle'?
late vic. gothic
65
what did the fin de siècle signify?
- The term ‘fin de siècle’ signifies… cultural decline - The fin-de siècle marked a period of transition from old to new, without the assurance that the future would bring continued enlightenment and improvement; it was the ‘ambivalence of modernity’.
66
how did the gothic use the fin de siecle?
Gothic fiction provided a vehicle for exploring social transformations and the ambivalence they evoked.
67
what were the fin de siecle anxieties?
the growth of the city and the rise of an urban poor, challenges to older Victorian ideologies of gender and sexuality, doubts about the validity and stability of Empire, and fears about immigration
68
how did civilisation create the degenerate?
civilisation had created the degenerate and enabled his propagation through its suspension of the mechanism of natural selection
69
in which gothic era was Camilla written?
late vic. gothic - 1872
70
when were fears of urban spaces projected? what were these fears?
Mid-to-late Victorian gothic - Slumming - “human vermin” -
71
in which gothic era was Jekyll and Hyde written?
late vic.gothic
72
what is Hyde form jekyll and Hyde a metaphor for?
Metaphor for addiction; reflects the growing anxiety over opium addiction throughout the 19th C
73
in which gothic era was the picture of dorian grey written?
late vic. gothic
74
what and when was imperial gothic fiction?
a late-Victorian and early-Edwardian (c. 1870–1914) literary genre blending traditional gothic horror with themes of imperial anxiety, decline, and foreign threat
75
what were the tropes of the imperial gothic?
- insanity - reverse invasion or colonisation - racial, civilisational or psychological degeneration - anxieties about both feminism and homosexuality
76
what were the historical developments within the modern gothic era?
- Catastrophically destructive total war - Political totalitarianism: Nazism and Stalinism - Social progress: civil rights for the marginalised - nuclear energy - Extraordinary technological progress e.g. the Moon landing in 1969
77
what are the tropes of the modern gothic?
- emergence of dystopia - horror films - the American southern gothic - focused on the decay of the south (post-civil war) - short stories and novels usually about entrapment, bizarre situations, nightmarish nature of bureaucracy, combining realism and the “Fantasque”, absurdism e.g. the Demeter
78
when was Becker's denial of death written? what is its argument?
1973 - modern gothic - all human culture, art, religion, etc (including literature, and therefore Gothic fiction) is about coming to terms with our mortality​
79
what and when was Kristeva’s abjection theory?
- modern gothic Abjection is our self-protective un/subconscious reaction to deeply disgusting things which threaten our sense of who we are e.g. “I thought I saw Elizabeth , in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingoldstat
80
what were the typical tropes of the American gothic?
- Pervasive moral nihilism – there is no morality left - Frequently explores the edges of civilisation - Inhuman environments - The grotesque
81
what are the main ideas in McCarthy's works? (modern gothic)
McCarthy’s universe is godless, cultureless, and devoid of moral anchors. Violence is not Gothic spectacle but a fundamental human condition.
82
why might modern gothic works not be considered gothic? e.g. McCarthy + Banks. why might they?
- Modern authors face fewer publication restraints, allowing far more graphic violence. - Their horrors are explicit, not obscured or symbolic. - They lack the traditional Gothic sublime, supernatural ambiguity, or moral frameworks. they do: the authors explore: - Moral transgression - Human darkness - Violence as an existential condition - The collapse or absence of culture -->These resonate with Gothic concerns, even if the execution is modern and brutal.
83
what are tropes associated with the postmodern gothic?
- fear of technology - serial villers, vampires, werewolves e.g. twilight + dexter - zombies - cyperpunk - dystopia
84
list all of freuds theories which link to the gothic
- castration anxiety - The Oedipus Complex - The Death Drive - The Id, Ego, and Superego - Repression - The Unconscious - The Uncanny (Das Unheimliche)
85
explain freuds castration anxiety theory. give examples of its use in gothic texts
the fear of loss of power, control, or bodily integrity. - Gothic horror frequently literalises this through mutilation, dismemberment, or emasculation - e.g. Frankenstein’s fear of female reproductive power + Dracula’s bite as symbolic penetration
86
explain freuds Oedipus Complex theory
Desire for the opposite‑sex parent; rivalry with the same‑sex pardracula a lpove story ent e.g. Parental desire and creation in Frankenstein (Victor as both mother and father).
87
explain freuds death drive theory
Humans possess an unconscious drive towards destruction, violence, and self‑annihilation. - Gothic texts often dramatise this through murder, decay, self‑destruction, or apocalyptic settings
88
explain freuds Id, Ego, and Superego theory
almost three stages of development into higher forms - Id: primal drives (sex, aggression, hunger). - Ego: rational self. - Superego: moral conscience.
89
explain freuds repression theory
Forbidden desires or traumatic memories are pushed into the unconscious e.g. dreams - in Frank. when victor dreams of incest
90
explain freuds 'unconscious' theory
Human behaviour is driven by hidden desires, fears, and memories.
91
explain freuds uncanny theory
The return of the repressed creates fear. - Familiar things become frightening when made strange. - Doubles, doppelgängers, automata, corpses, ghosts, mirrors, déjà vu. - Perfect for Gothic texts that blur boundaries between life/death, human/monster, self/other.
92
what was feudalism?
a medieval European social and political system (9th–15th centuries) where land was exchanged for service and loyalty. Kings gave land (fiefs) to nobles/knights in exchange for military protection, while peasants (serfs) worked the land in exchange for safety
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