This sublime scene was captured in the fictional television show, Twin Peaks. The murder of Laura Palmer haunts this small, sleepy town where the residents are full of secrets. Directors Mark Frost and David Lynch designed the show to be mysterious and disturbing, encompassing the sublime aesthetic which was described by Edmund Burke as that which “excite[s] the ideas of pain and danger… or operates in a manner analogous to terror” (37).
Seeped in Gothic themes and influences, the murder of a shipwrecked sailor divulges with details in Mary Robinson’s, “The Haunted Beach”. However, explanations surrounding the characters are scarce; the reasoning as to why… Continue reading
The science fiction/crime procedural The X-Files (1993-2002) established itself as not only a popular culture phenomenon but as a staple of “quality television” – series that are fundamentally “high” culture and intelligent. The show boasts three… Continue reading
What goes around truly does come back around, and karma tends to come back to us with a vengeance. The world has a mysterious way of making sure people’s wrong-doings are brought to… Continue reading
Ever since Adam and Eve were evicted from paradise, countless stories have been written that include characters removed from society that have little or no contact with others. From Robinson Crusoe to more… Continue reading
The dichotomy of man’s innate good and evil has always been a fascinating literary subject to me. Among the stories that attempt to look at this troubling juxtaposition of the human soul, none… Continue reading
Through the novel of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, we learn that the process that Victor goes through to get the body of his creation is almost over looked, rather not explained. The point… Continue reading
Popularized by Lord Byron, the Byronic hero is a fiction character type that has been around for centuries and its wake can be felt in today’s popular culture. Although it first appeared in Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage in 1812,… Continue reading
Romantic ideas were certainly influential in the inception of the Gothic, and many issues that the authors were passionate about quickly became thematic concepts in this new genre of Gothic poetry, such as… Continue reading
In Lord Byron’s Manfred we see the tragic life played out of the main character Manfred. The plot follows a story arc that has influenced many stories that we see today. Most notable of these is… Continue reading
The femme fatale, French for “fatal women,” is a character whose importance in Romantic literature and whose journey through modern-day adaptations is almost unparalleled. Existing historically in both biblical figures as early as… Continue reading
In Keats’s “The Eve of St. Agnes,” we are faced with a somewhat ambiguous ending to the “story of two adolescent lovers whose relationship is threatened by their feuding families” (Havird 91). After… Continue reading
Victor Frankenstein and his monstrous progeny have hugely impacted horror and science fiction. However, much of contemporary cultural knowledge of the Frankenstein story has more in common with its subsequent adaptations than the… Continue reading
The Gothic novel capitalizes on bringing to life the horror of the fallen world. It relies heavily on setting and characters to demonstrate the total depravity of man. By taking a close look… Continue reading
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s influence on modern media can be traced by examining the gothic elements available in the poem and in the video game “Silent Hill.” Coleridge’s “Rime” has several decidedly gothic elements… Continue reading
After it publishing in the 1800’s Samuel Coleridge’s gothic tale of a young woman and her night with a mysterious marked lady, became wildly popular. This poem contained imagery and language that some… Continue reading
The term “Gothic” normally conjures popular, oftentimes cliché images in one’s mind, namely: the supernatural, darkness, castles, love, or mystery. However, recent scholarship has begun to separate Gothic literature into two distinct, gender-based… Continue reading
