We were so busy discussing your drafts of King Lear essay I did not have chance to give you homework assignment:
Please read the Edgar Allen Poe Story in our Coursepak, "The Tell-Tale Heart"
Also read the Flannery O'Connor story, "The Lame Shall Enter First" which I gave you as handout last week.
If you have lost either the coursepak or the handout, these stories are easy to find online--google them!
Finally: look up history of the gothic in literature and come prepared to discuss definitions!!!
Please blog on this topic for our Tuesday class:
Here is an excerpt from another Poe story ("The Fall of the House of Usher") which is worth mining for gothic elements. See if you can come up with your own intuitive definition of the gothic based on what you read below:
DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country ; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was - but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable ; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me - upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees - with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium - the bitter lapse into everyday life - the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart - an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it - I paused to think - what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher ? It was a mystery all insoluble ; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression ; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down - but with a shudder even more thrilling than before - upon the remodelled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.
Gothic element engages the reader to step away from the typical form of literature of love and romance and stimulates emotions like fear, darkness, and horror. Gothic stories provides us with vivid description to set a mood.
ReplyDeleteGothic literature gives people the chance to see and experience a more darker and deeper side of literature which can be as brilliant as other common written literature. Gothic literature can also reflect upon our own dark side as human beings. I believe that gothic literature can be as brilliant, entertaining and exciting as any other common topic; because we as readers can put ourselves in a new position and see things from the perspective in which the story is being told.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the excerpt from Poe as well as his Tell Tale Heart, I believe gothic literature is a poetic perspective into the dark side of the authors mind. It allows the author to create a shadowy atmosphere in which the readers can comfortably dive into. Poe's work is infamous because he fearlessly expresses the dark phases that take place in the human soul, it is intriguing and simultaneously captivating to travel into a darker side of the mind.
ReplyDeleteGothic literature is a departure from writing that inspires one with positive morals and spiritual evolution. Instead, it delves into the darkest fears of the human psyche, unravelling our emotions with suspense and exaggerated detail. It touches on the supernatural, sublime and morbid side of humanity.
ReplyDeleteThe emotionality of Gothic literature reads as though it aims to embolden the complexity that is the entire spectrum of human emotion. Almost as if all the different strata of emotion are liquified into this organic suffering that is both tragic and beautiful simultaneously. Its very intense but also cathartic.
ReplyDeleteGothic literature seems to involve horror that is described intensely about how negatively one person feels about the world. It offers another away how someone may feel about the world in a dark way. It draws the readers in with details of a demonic presence. It makes you want to read more even though you are scared to know what might happen next
ReplyDeleteGothic literature is a wild jungle of shadows. Much like a dense, tangled, chaotic jungle it can evoke a feeling of wonder, claustrophobia, depression and awe. It is dark and morose, yet it’s almost beautiful in its miserable morbidity. It is a reflection on the darker aspects of the human psyche, making you question the meaning of humanity in a different perspective.
ReplyDeleteGothic literature paints a dark, lonely, and gloomy picture. It gives the reader insight into the distorted mind and break from reality. It isn't a happy romantic tale but rather a dark and depressing one. It sets a mysterious tone that leaves the reader gripped the story in suspense trying to anticipate the outcome of the story.
ReplyDeleteGothic literature paints a dark, lonely, and gloomy picture. It gives the reader insight into the distorted mind and break from reality. It isn't a happy romantic tale but rather a dark and depressing one. It sets a mysterious tone that leaves the reader gripped the story in suspense trying to anticipate the outcome of the story.
ReplyDeleteGothic literature pulls the reader in, using a sick and twisted mindstate that you wouldnt usually be used to. When reading gothic literature you are engaged by being in the mind of someone else. You almost begin to imagine your self being in the situations being taken place, vividly painting a picture in your mind.When reading gothic literature it's like you are being captured into the darkness of the story because its so different from your everyday life, it's almsot like getting satisgaction from something that you know is wrong, but you cannot stop reading, because you wanna know what comes next.
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