Реферат THE FEATURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF GOTHIC LITERATURE. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE NOVEL OF GOTHIC LITERATURE. CAN WE SAY THAT the features of GOTHIC prose can be found in the present-day literature?

CONTENT

 

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE. GOTHIC ELEMENTS IN THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

PART TWO. GOTHIC PROSE IN THE PRESENT-DAY LITERATURE

CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, is a classic example of a traditional Gothic novel, despite the fact that it isn’t scary. Gothic literature received its name because many examples of the genre were set during the late-medieval, or Gothic, period. It became popular in England, Germany, and the United States during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (Buzwell).

What many people don’t know about Gothic novels is that they are often based off of Romanticism, a validation of strong emotion and imagination. Basically, Gothic novels combine horror and romance, and do so in a psychological way. A Gothic novel is defined as a novel that deals with frightening or supernatural objects.

Through this, it becomes visible already that this story will end tragically. Gothic novels tend to take place in gloomy settings such as old buildings (particularly castles or rooms with secret passageways), dungeons, or towers that serve as a background for the mysterious circumstances.

 

PART ONE. GOTHIC ELEMENTS IN THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

During the time that Oscar Wilde was writing The Picture of Dorian Gray, gothic literature had declined in popularity. Although many of the gothic tropes still managed to make their way into many narratives of the late-nineteenth century. These narratives, Dorian Gray, included became known as Victorian gothic literature. The Victorian Gothics aimed to juxtapose the psychological terror, mystery, madness, and curses with a recognizable and familiar environment. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde focuses these gothic elements around the painting of Dorian. The painting fulfills the role of the supernatural element, the doppelganger, and the curse.

Wilde is not using gothic elements to shock his audiences; rather he uses the gothic to capture the hideousness of Gray`s corruptness which leaks out of the painting and into the tone of the entire text.

Wilde begins setting the mood of the text with excessive descriptions of nature, and natural beauty: “The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn” [1].

 

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