What does it mean to say a text is Gothic? Professor John Bowen considers some of the best-known Gothic novels of the late 18th and 19th centuries, exploring the features they have in common, including marginal places, transitional time periods and the use of fear and manipulation.

Textual characteristics of the gothic.

This four-week unit is designed to outline for students the historical background of the Gothic, including biographical information on Poe’s life. Students will examine and analyse how the Gothic has changed from Poe’s time until now, and wrestle with questions such as “what is attractive about the emotional experience of fear”?

Poe's literary creations have undoubtedly enabled us to perceive the mystery and terror of our restless souls, showing that the manifestation of horror in creativity should be understood as a response to a world desensitised to violence and human perversity, and art is not immune to such destructive effects.

Romanticism was attitude or intellectual orientation that characterised many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilisation over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century.

This study aims to highlight the characteristics of two of the subgenres of American Romanticism. The dark romanticism has been the most well known one unlike the light romanticism.

Edgar Allan Poe was known as a sullen and embittered man who harshly criticised Romantic writers, both prior and contemporary. One Romanticist, in particular, met with Poe’s derision: William Wordsworth.