Free English Literature Dissertations - The Emergence Of Modern Day Horror From 19th Century Gothic 2005 Table Of
THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN DAY HORROR FROM 19TH CENTURY GOTHIC
2005
Table of Contents
Abstract..3
1. Chapter 1: Statement of the problem 4
2. Chapter 2: Introduction..4
3. Chapter 3: Review of the literature6
4. Chapter 4: Research methodology..7
5. Chapter 5: Discussion.8
5.1. Nineteenth-century gothic and modern day horror.8
6. Chapter 6: Conclusions..25
7. Chapter 7: Suggestions for further research...27
8. Bibliography...30
Abstract
This research analyses in depth the emergence of modern day horror from nineteenth-century gothic. Applying to a psychoanalytic framework, the paper initially explores the principal gothic romances and gradually moves to horror films of Alfred Hitchcock and modern gothic horror films. Psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, Jacque Lacan and Julia Kristeva allows to evaluate the changes in gothic styles and some elements that resemble the original gothic. The research demonstrates that earlier gothic novels reveal the interaction between supernatural powers and gloomy mood, the psychological analysis of gothic characters and gothic elements that reflect, according to Freud, unconscious sexual desires of people and their fear of rejection. Gradually, the obsession with psychoanalysis changes the representation and perception of horror elements that are portrayed in an ironic way in the majority of modern horror films and novels. In this regard, some received findings of the paper are consistent with the earlier studies, while other results provide new valid data on the issue of gothic literature and its impact on modern day horror.
1 Statement of the problem
Exploring modern day horror films and novels, it is possible to draw a parallel between the nineteenth-century gothic genre and contemporary horror. Such a shift is inseparably connected with the spread of psychoanalysis created by Sigmund Freud, Jacque Lacan and Julia Kristeva and that gradually influenced the interpretation of early gothic romances and modern gothic horror. The first gothic novel The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole dates back to 1765, followed by Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Bram Stoker’s Dracula that considerably advanced the gothic genre.
2 Introduction
Recently, psychoanalysis has been exposed to harsh criticism from the side of modern scholars and philosophers. However, psychoanalysis can be successfully applied to the investigation of the emergence of modern day horror from nineteenth-century gothic. At the end of the eighteenth century Great Britain began to experience various social changes that challenged the existing ideologies and evoked human consciousness. It was in that controversial period when the gothic novel was created, reflecting the destruction of old social identity and pursuit of new identity.
Dissertations - Free English Literature Dissertations
