Den gotiske roman: elementer, temaer og indflydelse

The Gothic novel was invented almost single-handedly by Horace Walpole, whose The Castle of Otranto (1764) contains essentially all the elements that constitute the genre. Walpole's novel was imitated in the eighteenth century, but enjoyed widespread influence in the nineteenth century in part because of that era's indulgence in dark-romantic themes. Today, the Gothic continues to influence the novel, the short story, and poetry, and provides a major source of themes and elements in film making. (In fact, Gothic elements have been used so often in film that some have become predictable cliches. For example, when people enter an abandoned room in a supposedly abandoned house, the door often closes and locks behind them.)

Gothic elements include the following:

1. Setting in a castle or old mansion. The action takes place in and around an old castle or an old mansion, or the ruins of an old castle or mansion. Sometimes the edifice is seemingly abandoned, sometimes occupied, and sometimes it's not clear whether the buildidng has occupants (human or otherwise). The castle often contains secret passages, trap doors, secret rooms, trick panels with hidden levers, dark or hidden staircases, and possibly ruined sections. The castle may be near or connected to caves, which lend their own haunting flavor with their darkness, uneven floors, branchings, claustrophobia, echoes of unusual sounds, and mystery. And in horror-Gothic, caves are often seem home to terrifying creatures such as monsters, or deviant forms of humans: vampires, zombies, wolfmen.Translated into the modern novel or filmmaking, the setting is usually an old house or mansion--or even a new house--where unusual camera angles, sustained close ups during movement, and darkness or shadows create the same sense of claustrophobia and entrapment. The house might be already dark, perhaps because it was abandoned, or it might at first seem light and airy, but either night comes and people turn off the lights to go to bed, or at some dramatic point the lights will fail (often because of a raging storm). (And, as movie goers know well, while the scenes and dialog form the rational (or irrational) movement in the film, the music controls the emotional response to what is seen and spoken.)The goal of the dark and mysterious setting is to create a sense of unease and foreboding, contributing toward the atmospheric element of fear and dread. Darkness also allows those sudden and frightening appearances of people, animals, ghosts, apparent ghosts, or monsters.