Views on Gothic Tradition from British and American Literature

Abstract

Since the producing of gothic novels in the mid 18th century, the gothic technique is applied to literature creation continually, and has gradually become one of the far-reaching creation traditions in the field of English and American literature. Gothic traditions focus on exploring the mysterious and horrible elements in the society in order to show the darkness and violence of society. For this reason, this essay will analyze the gothic tradition in literature, and primarily explore the specific manifestation of the gothic tradition in British and American literature. 0.Introduction In British and American literature, there is a gothic tradition which has a widespread influence and is in the sustainable development. Since around 1750 gothic novels appeared for the first time in Britain, not only popular writers were keen on the traditional gothic literature creation, but also many first-class writers had a strong interest in it to either create a familiar gothic works or apply the gothic technique to their own works, which results in a large number of horror literature system in British and American literature. The main characteristics of traditional gothic novels are generally in places such as castles, ruins or wilderness as backgrounds, the plot of story is terrorist and exciting, and full of a large number of murder, violence and incest, always accompanied by ghosts, gods or other supernatural phenomenons. This kind of works usually has a mysterious, dark and terrorist atmosphere, full of a lot of suspenses, and has a very unique artistic power. The psychological basis of traditional gothic novels is mainly the inward fears of people. The outstanding works are devoted to show the evil and the depths of the human society, and carry out a moral dimension to further exploration. Since the advent and development of gothic literature, it is closely related to the social and cultural background of British and American over two hundred years. Since the beginning of last century, the study of gothic tradition has been promoted to an important height, and raised a hot wave among the academic trend of gothic culture study. 1.The analysis of gothic tradition in literary works The word "gothic" in English derives from a tribal name of the Teutonic peoples living in northern Europe during the middle ages. The people of this tribe were known as savage and wild. At that time, this nation had been called barbarians by the Romans. Then during the Renaissance in Europe, the thinkers used gothic to refer to a kind of arch type architectural style which was called the hated pointed in the middle ages. This kind of buildings had the towering spires, narrow windows, dark internal structure, complex tunnels hiding dead bodies. In these thinkers' views, the development of this type of construction was lagging behind the times, was a symbol of a savage and dark. As a result, gothic was labelled as savage, backward, horror, mystery, darkness, inappropriate lab etc. It is through this kind of belittled and despised buildings that gothic literature inspired. Since the date of its birth, traditional gothic novels attracts generations of readers all over the world relying on its unique charm. A large number of world literature masters have created the traditional gothic novels, or used gothic method in their works to achieve the improved theme or work results. Early gothic works generally happened in the middle ages, the location was often full of mystery. In the southern region of Catholic, the theme was mainly based on the description of family hatred, inheritance to show the dark side of humanity. The plot was tried to describe the violence and terror atmosphere, such as conspiracy, intrigue, incest, dungeon, and the dark image or structure like monasteries.