gothic literature
Macabre storytelling tradition
Gothic literature is a genre of fiction featuring dark, mysterious atmospheres, crumbling castles, supernatural elements, and heightened emotions.
The style emerged in eighteenth-century England and emphasizes horror, romance, and the macabre: Frankenstein and Dracula are classics of gothic literature.
The genre explores themes of decay, madness, and the uncanny. (Capitalized Gothic literature is the same genre, with the capital form being more traditional in academic contexts.)
- vampireBlood-drinking undead creature
- supernaturalBeyond natural explanation
- ghostApparition of the dead
- haunted houseDwelling believed spirit-inhabited
- hauntedOccupied by ghosts
graveyard · castle · darkness · stormy night · crypt · madness · eerie · mansion · moor · terror · ancient curse · doppelgänger · decay · macabre · uncanny · dark secret · forbidden love · family curse
- horrorhorror, terror, fear, dread, haunted
- literature coursesyoung adult lit, science fiction, detective fiction, Shakespeare, classics
- French LiteratureVictor Hugo, Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Dumas, Jules Verne
- 1800sVictorian era, Napoleon, Gilded Age, Queen Victoria, Industrial Revolution
- American ClassicsMoby-Dick, Moby Dick, Walden, Leaves of Grass, Little Women
- American LiteratureThe Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Moby-Dick, Moby Dick, Grapes of Wrath
gothic literaturedomestic comedy
Humor about household life
humorous fiction · romantic comedy · comedic fiction · chick lit
gothic literatureliterary realism
Accurate portrayal of everyday life
naturalism · social realism · kitchen sink realism · documentary fiction · slice of life
gothic literaturedrawing room comedy
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