#i read jstor entries on gothic literature for 3 years and all i got was a vampire kink

[notcatherinemorland]

when i blather about the gothic i take a couple of things for granted because there is a couple of things inherent to the way i see Gothic literature be: a) i think the gothic lit genre does function as a an ‘aesthetic’, or really as a checklist of things in which authors hit to invoke the Gothic genre. by invoking those tenets the text becomes Gothic. b) completely contrary to what i just said, the Gothic is not latent or invokable in every text. c) surface Gothic aesthetic does not indicate ‘literary gothic’ - graveyard poetry expresses philosophy, but not all poems about graveyards are part of the Graveyard Poetry tradition. Gothic works on both surface and subtext. d) i refuse to read a text in light of the gothic aesthetic without considering liminality and transgression, because both embody what gothic texts Are to me - existing between the states of safe/unsafe, moral/amoral, horror/terror, i could go on but the primary is safe/danger and the transgression, the movement between these states. what the gothic does is show the effects and consequence of the movement, specifically using the supernatural as means of expressing this. also there is a level of didacticism because the 19th century was just Like That Apparently. 

anyway so the ashen wolves fire emblem dlc is gothic as shit. except for the fact it isn’t at all but on god i will invoke the gothic in it So Much. 

#these are WORDS bro #i had a rant about stained glass windows and sitri fire emblem mum on edelgardblog i will reblog it here for my own posterity xx #i want to emphasise i dont think i'm correct. i just constantly exist in the state of an english seminar #all of this is pure and utter conjecture #i read jstor entries on gothic literature for 3 years and all i got was a vampire kink