Gothic literature includes...5/20/2023 Similar to the Gothic Revivalists' rejection of the clarity and rationalism of the Neoclassical style of the Enlightened Establishment, the literary Gothic embodies an appreciation of the joys of extreme emotion, the thrills of fearfulness and awe inherent in the sublime, and a quest for atmosphere. English Gothic writers often associated medieval buildings with what they saw as a dark and terrifying period, marked by harsh laws enforced by torture and with mysterious, fantastic, and superstitious rituals. Gothic literature is intimately associated with the Gothic Revival architecture of the same era. The Gothic Temple folly in the gardens at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, UK, built as a ruin in 1741, designed by James Gibbs Gothic fiction often moves between " high culture" and " low" or " popular culture". Other characteristics, regardless of relevance to the main plot, can include sleeplike and deathlike states, live burials, doubles, unnatural echoes or silences, the discovery of obscured family ties, unintelligible writings, and nocturnal landscapes and dreams. The form of a Gothic story is usually discontinuous and convoluted, often incorporating tales within tales, changing narrators, and framing devices such as discovered manuscripts or interpolated histories. The depiction of horrible events in Gothic fiction often serves as a metaphorical expression of psychological or social conflicts. The atmosphere is typically claustrophobic, and common plot elements include vengeful persecution, imprisonment, and murder. Especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, characteristic settings include castles, religious buildings like monasteries and convents, and crypts. The setting typically includes physical reminders of the past, especially through ruined buildings which stand as proof of a previously thriving world which is decaying in the present. Gothic fiction is distinguished from other forms of scary or supernatural stories, such as fairy tales, by the specific theme of the present being haunted by the past. Gothic fiction is characterized by an environment of fear, the threat of supernatural events, and the intrusion of the past upon the present. The ruins of Wolf's Crag castle in Walter Scott's The Bride of Lammermoor (1819)
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