【Statement #2】哥特文学是一个当代的产物,不是一个回顾的现象
>1970s后期的reviewers的言论
>> the terrorist system of novel writing
>> Pleasure derived from objects of terror
Radcliffe为了满足她向文学市场的进发,把恐怖和爱情合并在了一起
—-转折—
> 有人批判这种爱情和恐怖的文学形式是二级文学,但可能这只是一个overstate的言论
• Why: Gothic craze?
• One opinion
○ Damage from the French Revolution
§ [M de Sade]: Radcliffe & Lewis
□ Bloody horror→imagenary violence
• Another: more balanced
○ [William H]:Gothic partly from their interest
• Author:
○ "Gothic = French Revolution": comtemporary,not retrospective
□ e.g. 1790s reviewers
○ Reviews: Cult of the sublime →Gothic terror
§ e.g.[Anna L]
§ Exploit contemparary aesthetic & literary market
§ Associated with tragedy &epic
○ Critics = stripped the Gothic of literary pretension
§ Be careful: terrorist smeared
44. 哥特文学
1. Why there was a Gothic craze during the 1790s?
=> Literary history provides: it was originated from the French Revolution.
e.g. M.S. - the Gothic novels of R. and L. were the fruits of the revolutionary tremors felt by the Europe
- the horrors of the revolution pushed the writers to new extremes
=> W.H. - R.'s romances derived partly from the tottering state of old structures.
=> Reviewer's pun is referred (book and pages)
- Equating the Gothic with the French Revolution was not a retrospective phenomenon
- The reviewers knew the G terror derived from the B cult of the sublime (A.L.'s essay is referred)
2. R adopted the sublime to exlpoit fashipns and an attempt to pitch their work toward the high end of the literary market.
For: sublimity and terror were associated with tragedy and epic=> it's a strategy for WW.
By linking B's terror with Ro's, critics stripped the Gothic of its high literary pretensions.
3. One should be careful about overstating the case.