LIT 212R Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Stained Glass, Gothic Fiction, Ann Radcliffe
26 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Regarded as epitome of a great writer, but he did not start out that way. Popular playwright who wrote for commercial theatre in london. His concepts of drama were different from those of ancient roman & greek patterns. Started by horace walpole"s castle of otranto (1765): set in haunted castle & contained various mysterious apparitions. (cid:498)gigantic mailed fist(cid:499): Popularized by ann radcliffe & m. l. lewis (the monk). Spread abroad to: france, eug ne sue, u. s. , edgar allan poe. Rejected ideas of balance & rationalism: included (cid:498)hysterical, mystical, passionate adventures of terrified heroes and heroines in the clutches of frightening, mysterious forces(cid:499) which excited readers, modern horror novel & woman"s romance are both descendants of the. Gothic romance: charlotte bronte"s jane eyre, emily bronte"s wuthering heights, mary shelley"s frankenstein. Often cited as forerunner of modern sci-fi: medievalism: Gothic novels embraced medieval (gothic) culture disdained by early 18th century. Classical art looked back constantly to ancient greeks & romans.
