Comparing Dracula 'And The Portrait Of Dorian Grey'
AMERICAN GOTHIC FICTION:
THE ROOTS OF MODERN HORROR GENRE
University of Szczecin American Literature Seminar
January 8, 2014, Szczecin
What is American Gothic Fiction? Gothic fiction is a literary genre originated in the second half of the 18th century in the Great Britain and is often counted as a feature of Romanticism and the Victorian era. Horace Walpole and William Beckford are amongst the best known English authors of the dawn of the century. With the beginning of the 19th century came some the greatest pieces of the genre such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Portrait of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde. Unsurprisingly, with the success of many Gothic authors this …show more content…
It feasts upon bygone literary works and refreshes their key themes and motifs so they can be approved by the public. By this manner, numerous modern books and films are filled with the same, almost unchanged ideas created more than a hundred years ago. And pop culture put all best known Gothic elements into one modern genre. Spooky houses, gloomy atmosphere, unknown surroundings, frightening creatures, madness, supernatural, they all appear in modern horror stories, whether in books, on stage or silver …show more content…
He was inspired by works of Robert William Chambers, the author of the collection of short stories The King in Yellow from 1895. In a letter to his friend he describes weirdness of mentioned writer and his stories. "Chambers is like Rupert Hughes and a few other fallen Titans – equipped with the right brains and education but wholly out of the habit of using them."1 Other influential for Lovecraft works were English writers such as Lord Dunsany and Algernon Blackwood, who inspired his probably most popular titles coined together as a part of "Cthulhu Mythos". However, it was E. A. Poe and his trends that left the most significant mark on a young author. The absence of the influence of other American Gothic writers does not mean that their works are any less important. In this essay selected works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert William Chambers will be described as influential for the whole modern horror
THE ROOTS OF MODERN HORROR GENRE
University of Szczecin American Literature Seminar
January 8, 2014, Szczecin
What is American Gothic Fiction? Gothic fiction is a literary genre originated in the second half of the 18th century in the Great Britain and is often counted as a feature of Romanticism and the Victorian era. Horace Walpole and William Beckford are amongst the best known English authors of the dawn of the century. With the beginning of the 19th century came some the greatest pieces of the genre such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Portrait of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde. Unsurprisingly, with the success of many Gothic authors this …show more content…
It feasts upon bygone literary works and refreshes their key themes and motifs so they can be approved by the public. By this manner, numerous modern books and films are filled with the same, almost unchanged ideas created more than a hundred years ago. And pop culture put all best known Gothic elements into one modern genre. Spooky houses, gloomy atmosphere, unknown surroundings, frightening creatures, madness, supernatural, they all appear in modern horror stories, whether in books, on stage or silver …show more content…
He was inspired by works of Robert William Chambers, the author of the collection of short stories The King in Yellow from 1895. In a letter to his friend he describes weirdness of mentioned writer and his stories. "Chambers is like Rupert Hughes and a few other fallen Titans – equipped with the right brains and education but wholly out of the habit of using them."1 Other influential for Lovecraft works were English writers such as Lord Dunsany and Algernon Blackwood, who inspired his probably most popular titles coined together as a part of "Cthulhu Mythos". However, it was E. A. Poe and his trends that left the most significant mark on a young author. The absence of the influence of other American Gothic writers does not mean that their works are any less important. In this essay selected works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert William Chambers will be described as influential for the whole modern horror