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The Birth of Gothic Literature
Gothic Literature as a genre was first introduced with the publication of Horace Walpole's "The Castle of Otranto". Gothic Literature over time would flourish and branch off into many popular subgenres, the first of which being gothic horror. -
Mary Shelley
The growth of Gothic Literature continued on in the Romantic era. The Romantic era not only introduced the genre of Gothic Romance but also Science Fiction. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" marked a shift in Gothic Fiction by changing the typical Gothic villain from an evil man or some supernatural entity, into a physical embodiment of human folly brought to life through the power of science. -
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe continued to further Gothic Literature's development by condensing and utilizing elements of Gothic Horror as well as some elements of the Gothic Romance genre in the short stories that he had created. Poe's stories had not only furthered the development of already existing genres such as Gothic Horror, Gothic Romance, and Science Fiction but he had created the detective story as well. -
Robert Louis Stevenson
Another famous work from Gothic Literature came in the form of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". The story had done something that no other piece of Gothic Literature had done before which was exploring the duality of man. Many pieces of Gothic Literature had explored ideas of insanity and the darker parts of humanity but no one had explored the duality of man before. The story also continued contributions to science fiction with science being a key factor. -
Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker contributed to Gothic Literature in a major way with his famous novel "Dracula". Bram Stoker's "Dracula" was completely unique in the fact that it was essentially a slow burn and was told mostly through diary entries. The horror aspect of the story lied mostly within the ambience rather than in the supernatural entity itself. The novel also created the vampire genre. -
H.P. Lovecraft
Gothic Literature took a big turn when H.P. Lovecraft came into the picture. Lovecraft's stories of cosmic horror contributed in massive ways to the supernatural genre, expanding on the world of monsters and showing that there is more out there besides just vampires or witches. -
From Literature to Film
As the Victorian era was coming to an end the film industry was on the rise. There was a high demand to see stories from Gothic Literature be adapted into film, this was especially the case for the horror aspect of Gothic literature. Many of the classic black and white films were adaptations of the classic Gothic Horror stories that are still very popular within the modern day. It especially helped that big companies like Universal were producing these films. -
Moving away from adaptations
As the old monster movies were becoming stale, new stories and gimmicks were being developed. The world was changing, movies were becoming darker, edgier and were involving controversial themes. Even though there were some adaptations of the stories of Gothic Literature being produced the film industry was largely moving away from them. -
New classics
By the time of the 80s, films were now adult and comical focusing more on violence and other controversial topics rather than clearer, slower stories that focused more on the ambience to be scary. 80s films were all about the action where as older films had been all about the story and the themes found within. -
Stephen King
Gothic Literature was a thing of the past, it was still beloved by many people but was starting to become old news especially with new writers like Stephen King coming into the picture. Stephen King had an infatuation with horror and really wanted to scare people. He ended up having a huge impact on modern day horror and literature. -
Diverse Films
As we get into the 90s, movies were becoming a little bit more diverse. Lots of movies were still focused on horror and controversial themes but others were focused on either being adaptations or story driven films. It felt like the influence that Gothic Literature had over films for awhile was starting to come back again. Especially with films like "Sleepy Hollow", "Bram Stoker's Dracula", and "Se7en". -
Modern day-The influence of Gothic Literature
In the modern day films are more diverse than ever. There are so many different genres and mediums in which a movie or a story can be told. No matter what genre though, movies and other stories all have common themes in them that all go back to a common source. Talks of philosophy, horror, the supernatural and so on. These elements all came from Gothic Literature, without it as a genre we wouldn't have these elements in movies and stories.