Gothic Fiction Speech. Gothic fiction is the literature of nightmare also referred to as Gothic horror. It delves into and feeds on the ghoulish and monstrous creatures that haunt the very darkest places in your mind.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Sinead Cummins

Preliminary Task 1

Mr. Loughlin

Gothic Fiction: Visual Presentation Transcript

Slide 2- What is it?

Gothic fiction is the literature of nightmare also referred to as Gothic horror. It delves into and feeds on the ghoulish and monstrous creatures that haunt the very darkest places in your mind. Fears of claustrophobia, entrapment, terror, horror, pain, madness, the supernatural and the inexplicable. The word "Gothic" derives from "Goth", the name of a barbaric Germanic tribe that invaded Europe. Gothic medieval architecture such as cathedrals attributes a majestic style often with savage or grotesque ornamentation. It branched off from the Romanticism movement which occurred during the 18th and 19th century. Gothic fiction "gives shape to the concepts of the place of evil in the human mind."

Slide 3- Origins (historical context)

An intellectual and secular movement that dominated the eighteenth century. The rise of Gothicism has been attributed by several scholars as a response to the Enlightenment thinkers who favoured rationality and reason over emotions and feelings. It rejected anything that resembled the "barbarism" of the medieval period in their eyes. Their purpose was to demonstrate that science and "natural" philosophy were the