INTRO TO GOTHIC INDIVIDUALISM

NOTES

• The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole started Gothic tradition in English fiction.
• Some of the greatest creatures of all time were created in these works, Such as Frankenstein and Dracula.
• Gothic cathedrals placed towers and high stained-glass windows to put fear in religious worshipers.

NOTES

• Gargoyles are also used outside of these cathedrals to ward off evil spirits.
• When romantics looked at an individual they saw hope, when Gothic writers looked at an individual they saw potential evil.
• The Gothic tradition was established in Europe way before American writers had made a name for themselves.

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• By the 19th century, writers such as Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were using Gothic elements in their fiction.
• Edgar Allen Poe was the master of Gothic form in the United States.
• His plots involve extreme situations, such as live burials, physical and mental torture, and retribution from beyond the grave.

NOTES

• To Poe it was extreme situations such as those that people reveal their true nature.
• The Gothic dimension offered him a way to explore the human mind and arrive at an essential truth.
• Nathaniel Hawthorne used the Gothic elements to express what he thought were important truths.

NOTES

• Hawthorne instead examined the human heart under contains of fear, greed, vanity, mistrust, and betrayal.
• Other Gothic writers include Washington Irving and Herman Melville.
• The spirit and imagery of the Gothic literary tradition came in part from the Gothic architecture of the Middle Ages.

NOTES

• After the Civil War the popularity of Gothic writing decreased.
• Realism replaced romanticism as the preferred American literary style.
• The new ground for Gothic writing was the American South, in the 20th century.

EDGAR ALLEN POE

NOTES

• Edgar Allen Poe wrote haunting tales in which he explored the dark side of the human mind.
• Poe had a really sensitive nature and made his sadness and depression a literary work.
• Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston, Massachusets in 1809.

NOTES

• He one of three children of a couple who toured the East as actors.
• Before he reached the age of three his father abandoned his family.
• His mom also died of tuberculosis

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• The Allen's took him in and they lived in Richmond,VA
• Both of his foster parents were theater fans
• In 1815 they all moved to England

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• They only lived in England for five years.
• Due to Mrs. Allen's poor health and the failure of her husband's business they returned to Richmond.
• Poe continued learning in the United States and with languages such as Latin and French.

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• Edgar Allen Poe started writing poems when he was 16 and had enough to fill a book.
• In 1826 he began attending the University of Virginia and gained heavy debt.
• He was then forced to leave school.

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• He fled to Boston, attracted by the city's literary activity.
• It was where he anonymously published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, in 1827.
• At 18 years old, Poe flat broke, enlisted in the army.

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• In 1829, Frances Allen died, and John Allen arranged for his release from the army.
• John Allen secured him a place as a cadet in the U.S Military Academy at West Point.
• But Poe found academy life confining and wanted a career as a writer.

NOTES

• He deliberately misbehaved to get expelled from the academy.
• After leaving West Point he published another book and met Maria Clemm
• He moved to Baltimore and there he began writing short stories.

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• In 1834, John Allen died and left nothing to his foster son.
• Poe moved to Richmond the next year to work for a periodical.
• The popularity of his book reviews led to a great increase in the magazines circulation.

NOTES

• Disputes with the publisher led him to resign and move to New York City where he published another book.
• But he then moved again in search of work, to Philadelphia.
• He got his recognition as poet in 1843, being awarded with $100.
• Then 1847, his wife Virginia died but a couple years later he got engaged to his boyhood sweetheart who was also a widow.
• Later that year he collapsed on a Baltimore street and was taken to the hospital where he died a few days later.