Her book, strongly implied to be, and marketed as, Gothic, is anything but. While the style and method has changed over the years, this obsession with the superficial elements of the Gothic genre is still present in our modern era.Ĭase in point: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. And it misinterprets the reasons for the genre’s use of hyperbolic emotion. That may be a common misconception of the Gothic genre – that it’s nothing more than overblown emotional responses – but it’s certainly not true. The Gothic components serve to mock those who make superstitious and illogical assumptions based on an overuse of their imagination. She overlays a very Austenian theme – one of family and culture in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century England – with superficial Gothic elements. She wrote this book intending to write in the Gothic, while also satirizing the genre. While it’s less absurd than Otranto, it’s clear that Austen’s disdain for the Gothic genre stemmed from her misunderstanding of it. The plight of Princess Isabella at the hands of her soon-to-be father-in-law has real promise, but the remainder of the book takes this threat and explores it through comical events such as giant helmets falling from the sky.Īnother example would be Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.

In order to find its Gothic underpinnings, we have to wade through the absurd. The book is so awkward that it’s hard to even argue that it’s Gothic, though I believe that it is. If there was an award for the most sensational and nonsensical Gothic novel, the first Gothic work of all time – the Castle Otranto by Horace Walpole – would certainly be in the running. The second is the contrasting trend in which writers use the Gothic genre, especially its tropes to explore heavy themes related to spirituality, psychology and the progression of modern events. The first is the tendency of some writers to assume that Gothic writing is predominantly sensational superficiality and to focus on that. To start with though, there are at least two things that have not changed since the Gothic genre began with the Castle Otranto, by Horace Walpole. Including all of these works demonstrates the progression of what writers and readers believe about the Gothic genre. In addition, I’m going to consider works that aren’t marketed as Gothic…but should be. And keep in mind that I’m including all of the works that are termed Gothic, many of which do not have truly Gothic themes and which I would not call Gothic. This is a huge topic, one we can only cover at a minimum, but let’s take a look at as many examples as we can. But it seems like few people have any modern references despite the fact that there are many.īut how do these modern works differ from their historical predecessors? That’s what we’re talking about today – the evolution of Gothic writing! A few people will mention more contemporary Gothic writing such as Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Or even the poems and stories of Edgar Allan Poe. When most people talk about Gothic writing, they mention books such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre or Dracula.

Modern gothic literature