The Origins of Gothic Literature - Horror and Romance
“The Origins of Horror Literature” is a weekly series by West 10th’s Editor-in-Chief Travis Schuhardt during the month of October, explaining how the Gothic and Horror genres developed, offering recommendations on which classic Gothic tales and modern horror stories to check out, and discussing some horror-themed journals to submit your writing to during the Halloween season.
October 21st. With the big day only ten away, I think it’s fitting we take a look at something a little more horrifying; that is, the origins of the horror genre itself. So, what’s the difference between the Horror and the Gothic? Well, that’s an interesting question. When the Gothic was still in its earliest forms, there were (very generally-speaking) two different styles of Gothic. On the one hand, you had novels that avoided the supernatural, and simply used the Gothic stylings — large castles, ghost stories, dread — as a means to heighten tension in the story; these novels were often grounded in a strict, conservative morality. On the other hand, you had what might be considered complete debauchery: demons, ghouls, religious desecration, sex, perversions, witches, monsters, and so on. To the former, Ann Radcliffe’s novel The Mysteries of Udolpho is likely the most famous example, to the latter, Matthew Lewis’s The Monk.
The Mysteries of Udolpho follows a young girl named Emily St. Aubert, who lives in France in the 16th century (though the entire novel reads as though she were living in the 18th century, pay it no mind), in a small cabin with her parents. In true Gothic fashion, both of her parents die, and she is forced to go live with her aunt in the big city, and while there becomes very close and involved with a boy named Valancourt, whom she’d met previously. Emily’s aunt eventually marries a man named Montoni, who, after the marriage, takes them both to his castle at Udolpho. Although there are rumors of ghosts and ghouls running around the castle, there are no ghosts, and the only supernatural horror comes from Emily’s imagination. This type of Gothic novel helped to inform the then-developing Romance genre.
The Monk is a lot messier with a lot more characters, and would be very difficult to summarize in passing. Basically, a monk is perverted by a demon, disguised as a young girl, disguised as a young boy in the Church, and, after he is convinced to sleep with her, decides that he wants to sleep with another young girl, and so develops a magical, demon-aided strategy to put her to sleep and steal her from her home in order to have his way with her. If that sounds both needlessly complex and disgusting, that’s because it is, and, mind you, I’ve left out the multiple subplots. What this book did do, however, was establish a discourse around the explicitly supernatural elements of Gothic literature, as it used almost every single supernatural Gothic trope that had appeared up to 1796, the year it was written. From this raunchy, immoral, supernatural heap of story, the Horror genre was born.
If you’d care to read either, here are links:
Both are quite long, but both are far more enjoyable reads than The Castle of Otranto, and are legitimately engaging if you’ve the time to sit down and read them.
Reading Recommendation: For this week, I recommend a short little story called Fail-Safe by Philip Fracassi. It’s oddly touching, sad, and creepy all in one, and though a little longer than last week’s story, it is definitely still worth the read. This one is a little more on the sci-fi/fantasy side of the horror genre, but uses it to full effect.
Places to Submit: If you’re still in the mood to get some horror-writing done (and I certainly hope you are), here are some places looking for submissions that might get your creative juices flowing!
1. If you can’t get enough of apocalypses — be they zombie, nuclear, or environmental — this journal might be for you!
https://jpskewedthrone.dreamwidth.org/499730.html
The stories can be up to 7,500 words, and the deadline isn’t until December 31st, so even if you only draft it now, you’ll have tons of time to polish it before the deadline!
2. Submit to West 10th! Our submissions are still open! Click the “Submit” tab above to find out how. This doesn’t have to be a horror-themed story, just send your best! We’re open until mid-December.
Thank you for reading, be sure to subscribe and check back every week for stories, poems, reading recommendations, and places to submit your work! If you read any of the stories mentioned, comment down below your thoughts!
All historical information in this article comes from the NYU class “Gothic Literature.”