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LIT 2000: Gothic Literature - Professor Surendar: Gothic Motifs

This LibGuide was created to aid Professor Brinda Surendar's LIT2000 course.

Black Box with Red Text stating Gothic Literature

Key Gothic Motifs

Gothic Motifs & Themes

Motifs

  • Gloomy castles
  • Remote and exotic locations
  • Intriguing characters
  • "Frightening, unfamiliar, yet also strangely familiar" (Bowen)
  • Juxtaposition of the modern and the ancient
  • Women characters are usually helpless

Themes

  • Anti-hero
  • Corruption (often of human nature)
  • Disintegration of the American Dream
  • Doppelgangers
  • Fascination with death, decay
  • Fascination with misdeeds of the past
  • Madness
  • Paranoia
  • Supernatural