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Gothic Imagination: Essays in Dark Romanticism
174 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 1974
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July 3, 2024
This captivating little tome used by Per Faxneld in his reasearch for his "Satanic Feminism" intrigued me enough to want to read. I am glad I read it, because Gothic novels were among my favorite as a teenager and this book opened up perspectives.
The content is best described by author/coordinator G.R.Thompson:
"The essays in this volume suggest the persistency of Gothic writers in using religious symbols and images as a vehicle for presenting a picture of man as eternal victim-victim of both himself and of something outside himself. The demons, gods, mythic heroes, and other human icons, along with castle, cathedral, manor house, temple, graveyard, churchyard, charnel house, dungeon, labyrinth, cave, icebound seas, high mountain crags, lightning, storms-are all, simultaneously, emblems of supernatural power external to the human mind, and of the agony within the human mind and spirit. They are metaphors of the self and of the nameless other, conjoined for a metaphor of the agonizing duality imbedded deep in the human personality."
If you follow my example and read the essays, like me you will probably not be surprised to find E. A. Poe's work dissected to find the Ancient Egyptian markers in his work. And Mary Shelly's Frankenstein (and two of her father's works, William Godwin.
The essay that however had the most effect on me was Virginia Hyde's "From the 'Last Judgement' to Kafka's World: A Study in Gothic Iconography". It is a reasonable outlining of the "Last Judgment" motif as engraved in stone on Gothic Cathedrals - with a hierarchy of the "people deemed to be present on this event" - and how this motif appears in Kafka's most famous novels: "The Trial" and "The Castle".
Have a look at a few medieval cathedrals where the "Last Judgement" is represented. Look at who and where and how is painted there. And all of a sudden even the outcomes of the novels will be clear.
The content is best described by author/coordinator G.R.Thompson:
"The essays in this volume suggest the persistency of Gothic writers in using religious symbols and images as a vehicle for presenting a picture of man as eternal victim-victim of both himself and of something outside himself. The demons, gods, mythic heroes, and other human icons, along with castle, cathedral, manor house, temple, graveyard, churchyard, charnel house, dungeon, labyrinth, cave, icebound seas, high mountain crags, lightning, storms-are all, simultaneously, emblems of supernatural power external to the human mind, and of the agony within the human mind and spirit. They are metaphors of the self and of the nameless other, conjoined for a metaphor of the agonizing duality imbedded deep in the human personality."
If you follow my example and read the essays, like me you will probably not be surprised to find E. A. Poe's work dissected to find the Ancient Egyptian markers in his work. And Mary Shelly's Frankenstein (and two of her father's works, William Godwin.
The essay that however had the most effect on me was Virginia Hyde's "From the 'Last Judgement' to Kafka's World: A Study in Gothic Iconography". It is a reasonable outlining of the "Last Judgment" motif as engraved in stone on Gothic Cathedrals - with a hierarchy of the "people deemed to be present on this event" - and how this motif appears in Kafka's most famous novels: "The Trial" and "The Castle".
Have a look at a few medieval cathedrals where the "Last Judgement" is represented. Look at who and where and how is painted there. And all of a sudden even the outcomes of the novels will be clear.
Displaying 1 of 1 review