The Imperial Gothic, a new form of fiction in the 18th century

The word Gothic is defined by the Britannica Dictionary as: of or relating to a style of writing that describes strange or frightening events that take place in mysterious places. Or, of or relating to a style of architecture that was popular in Europe between the 12th and 16th centuries and that uses pointed arches, thin and tall walls, and large windows.

              Gothic Fiction is often believed to have come to fruition when in 1764, Horace Walpole first used the word ‘Gothic” when he titled his novel, The Castle of Otranto, with the subtitle reading, A Gothic Story. Perhaps Walpole used the term gothic to describe the castle within the novel, but he pretended that the story was an antique, with providing a preface in which the original story was published in Italy in 1529. The story itself is not truly from 1529, but perhaps that was a joke in on itself. (The British Library)

              Gothic fiction is defined by Britannica as a European romantic pseudomedieval fiction having an atmosphere of mystery, terror, and even the supernatural. Some of the most popular authors to derive within this literature category is often known as the ones who arguably popularized it within classical horror, such as Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker. Their horror stories such as Frankenstein, (1818) and Dracula (1897). Both in which introduced the existential type of nature of humankind that makes up the mystery and terror within. (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica)

The term, ‘imperial Gothic’ refers to the late 19th century fiction set within the British Empire. Within imperial Gothic fiction, it employs or adapts elements drawn from gothic novels. This could be elements such as gloomy, forbidding atmosphere or weather, brutal or tyrannical men, violence or punishment, the presence of the supernatural or occult. (The British Library) The term “imperial Gothic” is first explored by Patrick Brantlinger in his Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830–1914, published in 1988.To make it simpler to define what Imperial Gothic is, Patrick Brantlinger states it as thus, “Imperial Gothic expresses anxieties about the waning of religious orthodoxy, but even more clearly it expresses anxieties about the ease with which civilization can revert to barbarism or savagery and thus about the weakening of Britain's imperial hegemony.” Brantlinger also says there are three principal themes of imperial Gothic:  an individual regression or “going native,” an invasion of civilization by the forces of barbarism or demonism, and the opportunities for adventure/heroism in the modern world. Brantlinger (Imperial Gothic, 1) Perhaps, we can see this in works such as Jackle and Hyde by Robert Stevenson, where a man can have a ‘second’ nature that can be something barbaric or deeper and darker version of himself despite being a respected Victorian man. In Dracula, by Bram Stoker, a vampire seeks to invade the shores of England from his country that surrounds the outskirts of the Victorian Empire, spreading his disease like undead vampirism. In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, where in a time where science and knowledge are deemed the innovation of the time within England, becomes the tragic consequence to an uncontrollable horror. Imperial Gothic is essential all gothic literature or gothic novels that contain the deeper fear and/or issues that prevailed within the 18th century British Imperial Empire.

Sources/Further readings:

 

Associated Place(s)

Event date:

circa. 1830