1. Overview of European Gothic

2. French Gothic

3. German Gothic

4. Conclusion

 

Overview of European Gothic

It is admitted that the English Gothic genre wasnt the only example of a popular aesthetic of horror in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe. Indeed, Gothic literature existed in France and was equally (to Britain) popular there. The vogue for Gothic also reached Germany: a great amount of novels and tales featuring knights, robbers, and ghosts were translated and written there. These developments of the Gothic couldnt be neglected.

Just like all literary genres, the French and German Gothic novel didnt arise in cultural isolation. From the very beginning, it borrowed freely from a wide range of sources, both foreign and domestic; literary, scientific and aesthetic (showing a highly developed sense of beauty, esp. in art).

The Gothic movement in Europe underwent several initial periods: gestation, development and decline. Broadly speaking, its believed that this genre appeared at the moment of the publication of Walpoles The castle of Ontario in 1764 and existed some time after Charles Maturins Melmoth the Wanderer of 1820.

To sum it up, the Gothic was a broad European phenomenon and became even more widespread because its early features were transformed in several continental variations in the nineteenth century.

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Gothic in France

The link between the French sentimental adventure story and the English Gothic novel became apparent in the late eighteenth century.

Significantly, many of French writers engaged in the Gothic experiment began their literary careers as translators. They produced some successful adaptations and so provided the substantial input into the development of the sentimental Gothic novel in Europe.

At some point in the late nineteenth century under the impact of translated English and German Gothic works the French sentimental adventure story (which existed since the 1730's) transmuted itself into yet another distinct genre, termed the roman noir. This new form underwent further modifications as a result of political and social changes. A classic example of the French roman noir could be The Recess by Sophia Lee (1783-85).

The amount of borrowings and changes she made is striking. She was likely to be writing for a female audience and this fact greatly influenced her style. The whole story could be seen as an enduring pursuit during which the hero and heroine, though they may move from one location to another, can never escape their destiny. The horrifying effect is achieved by deathly descriptions. Some significant innovations occurred in comparison with original Gothic text (Prévost Cleveland):

    -  the emotional and psychological portrait of the heroine is greatly augmented;

    - the criminal behavior of the hero is moderated;
    - the language and style becomes more elegant and ornate.

 

The local features of this masterpiece were easier to trace back  than the evidence of some influences from abroad. But still some common for all Gothic novels forms remained, for example:
    - the use of historical settings;
    - the sense of breathless flight and pursuit;
    - and the occasional exploitation of supernatural possibilities.


The tradition of the roman noir didnt ignore the consequences of the French Revolution after which French authors didnt have to reach back into the feudal past in search for themes for their works. After the Revolution the censorship disappeared almost overnight and that gave literature a boost. The Revolution was treated at the highest symbolic level. If earlier the roman noir was largely, if not always, a literary genre used by writers with royalist sympathy, from that time on it was also used by the authors who created a new literate for the urban audience. They made collections of curious or mysterious stories, culled from a wide variety of sources (including the Gothic novel). The supernatural was represented as a product of the narrators disordered imagination. It was often written in a form of a historical tale.


But still these newly created genres obtained some markets that could be associated with the Gothic:
    - a virtuous, distressed heroine;
    - scenes of pursuit and capture;
    - feudal castles;
    - mad scientists;
    - secret societies.


Reading these novels you are terrified of devils, the thought of ghosts or even a dead body makes you quake; you are the victim of every fear; and you are refused the very illuminations which would render you less miserable. Mystery relates to inexplicable nature of the adventures that befall characters.


Works of French writers are not seen by commentators as central to the Gothic tradition, but collectively they bring many of the central elements of Gothic into focus.

 

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Gothic in Germany

 

The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 permitted British and German fiction to develop along new lines and to suddenly liberate from the Francophone interference, and allowed the expanse of literary exchanges between these two countries which occurred in the mid-1790s. This tradition of the author-translator as cultural innovator was continued and a similar process of assimilation still took place.

 

The tradition of the German Gothic writing itself has to be divided into three distinct subgenres:
Die Ritter-, Räuber- and Schauerromane (novels of Chivalry, Banditry and Terror)

 

die Räuberromane (or novel of Banditry)
The concept of romantic outlaw derives from Karl Moor in Schillers play Die Räuber (1781). Twelve years later a mass of robber-novels appeared.
In the majority of cases, the heroes of these kind of novel were of noble birth, were badly treated by the society, so they were engrossed in a desire to take revenge. Mere wealth had no appeal to them. They were determined to fight for the good of humanity, and the only way they could do that was to destroy all persons possessing money and power.
[Heinrich Zschokke "Abällino, der grosse Bandit 1793]

 

 

die Ritterromane (or novel of Chivalry)
Medievalism entail stories of tournaments, jousting competitions, magic mirrors, mortal combat, knightly honor, endangered heroines, treachery and betrayal and select tribunals (=illegal courts in which summary justice was supposedly meted out by rich and powerful who appear as masked judges).
This type of novel usually contains some typical Gothic motives (based on Goethes Götz von Berlichingen:
the distressed heroine, the separated lovers, the malignant rival;
the select dungeon, the imprisoned heroine in a lone convent;
her persecution by wicked and diabolical monk;
and finally the union and nuptial of the courageous hero and exquisite heroine.
[Goethe Götz von Berlichingen 1773]

 

die Schauerromane (or novel of Terror)
This type of novels caused greatest interest both in Germany and abroad. It was closely allied to the German Märchen (or fairytale) on the one hand and Christian apologetics on the other hand (author explain the moral of his tale which concerns mans duty to exercise free will, at every turn).
This novel remained as an unrepentant exercise in supernatural, during which two demons fight over a mans soul. And it was an extremely popular formula in Germany
[Schiller Der Geisterseher 1789]

 

Conclusion

 

The Gothic novel represents a complex network of borrowings, misappropriations and innovations. After translation and adaptation each genre took on an increasingly distinctive local character.
With the rise of English as a world language in the twentieth century, the Gothic has reasserted itself as a major literary movement popular on both sides of the Atlantic both in Europe and America.

 

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