Gothic horror

Gothic horror
Gothic horror is a genre of literature that has elements of both romance and horror. Although it is sometimes confused with paranormal romance, according to some horror writers, gothic horror is considered a more atmospheric type of literature.

“The traditional gothic novel starred a young, usually very naïve woman who is mesmerized by a dark, handsome man with a shrouded past. The plots vary from that point, but the classic example is Rebecca by Dame Daphne du Maurier,” said Lynn Stranathan, co-owner of Yard Dog press. “Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is another good example as is her sister’s much darker Wuthering Heights.”

The Importance of Setting in Gothic Horror

According to some writers, the setting of the gothic horror almost becomes another character.

“Gothic horror is dark, stormy full of eerie winds. Set in old mansion or castles on high cliffs,” Said Gloria Oliver, author of Willing Sacrifice. “(There are) 18th and 19th century settings. Something old or feeling of antiquity needs to be involved. Vampires tend themselves to gothic horror, that influx of antiquity with aristocracy. I guess almost like blueblood horror.”

Gothic Horror Verses Paranormal Romance

Richard Dansky, artist and author of Firefly Rain, said that the difference between Gothic Horror and Paranormal Romance is in the results.

“The gothic builds up the protagonist until he achieves what he's after, and then details the terrible consequences of achieving it. This sits in contrast to paranormal romance, wherein the main character generally seems to be rewarded for achieving (or dating) the forbidden.”

Dansky said that the gothic is also generally associated with excess, and in the original was extremely gory and explicit for its time. There was a strong connection to the lurid anti-Catholic publications of the time, as demonstrated by The Monk and the details of "The Spaniard's Tale" in Melmoth. Love affairs in gothics were generally doomed to end horribly – witness Maturin's loving couple who ended up cannibalizing each other, or Victor and Elizabeth in Frankenstein. At the same time, lustful, forbidden, seductive or forced relationships.

“Really, the gothic was in many ways defined by over-the-top, and included sex, rape, murder, cannibalism, Satanism, and all sorts of debauchery,” Dansky said.

Confusion Between Paranormal Romance and Gothic Horror

According to Brad Sinor, journalist and writer of short horror stories, the confusion between paranormal romance and gothic horror comes from the gothic literature of the sixties.

“Gothic horror actually consisted of novels and shorter work likeDracula, Frankenstein, Camilla and Varney the Vampire,” Sinor said. “There was always a subtext of forbidden sex and stepping outside the accepted way things were done in the Victorian era into the dark shadows that surrounded even the industrial age. Gothic horror actually can trace its roots even further back into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”

According to Sinor, The traditional sixties gothic novel had a direct connection to science fiction. Donald A Wolheim, then an editor at ACE books, looked at the sales figures of the gothic romances that they were publishing. He noticed that the ones that sold better always had a woman running away from a brooding house with a single light on it. Within a year or so all of the books in that genre had covers like that.

“Paranormal romance on the other hand didn't really get going until a few years ago,” Sinor said. “It had its roots in urban fantasy novels such as the ones written by Charles de Lint, Emma Bull and even Mercedes Lackey. In fact many paranormal romance writers say that they aren't writing romance they are writing urban fantasy.”

Examples of Gothic Horror Authors

Unlike modern urban fantasy like the Anita Blake and Sookie Stackhouse series, Gothic Horror still draws its horror from the environment around it. Examples include Edward Lee, Cailin R Kiernan, H. P. Lovecraft, Brian Keene and Karl Edward Wagner, C.R. Maturin Elizabeth Kostova

What is Gothic Horror?. 2014. What is Gothic Horror?. [ONLINE] Available at:https://suite.io/tracy-morris/1y9q2a9. [Accessed 28 April 2014].