Gothic Fiction

Gothic Fiction

Gothic Fiction is simply a combination of two elements art and horror which is highlighted in the form of literature. In another sense it is a romantic presentation of gothic culture where the reader gets shifted to the supernatural region from the existing original world. The supernatural region is confronted with death and destruction all around.

Gothic fiction is sometimes called as gothic novel where it symbolizes a stream of romance or fiction which evolved in around eighteenth but gained popularity during the twentieth century. This time was kind of romantic revolution or movement in the field of gothic art.

A kind of suspicious atmosphere is created majorly to grab the attention of the readers. Suspense makes the readers even more eager to read further. Mystery, curses and madness are the common subject matter. Gothic genre includes everything from short stories to poetries and novels etc. Graveyard Poets is one of the most popular ones along with the short stories specifically of Allen Poe. These stories were so much impressive and had great influence on the other writers during the time.

Gothic fiction somehow has nothing to do with the present. It is a representation of the past time. Romance and darkness go hand in hand. Most of the gothic novels are found fantasizing the medieval genre of narration. It was also a kind of showcase about the belief of the authors of that time with medieval settings. Generally the theme was anti-catholic. The use of literature was done in the best possible manner and that too for representing the medieval period or to be more correct for romanticizing the medieval period. Emotions dominated the thought of enlightenment along with rationalism.

Some of the novels dealing with gothic fiction emphasize on one theme. This theme dealt with the women discovering their husbands as strangers after getting married. This meant to show that there was no love, attraction, fear or repulsion going on. This was often considered as Gothic romance or Modern Gothic. Most of the novels published during the period often had young wives almost fighting for love of their old rich husbands. It was a kind of competition with their former wives. Ace books published all such novels which became popular during the 18^th century, the age of Gothic fiction.