The Function of Gender in Female and Male Gothic

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (English & American Studies), course: Gothic Fiction, language: English, abstract: The genre of Gothic became one of the most popular of the late 18th and early 19th century, and the novel usually regarded as the first Gothic novel is Horace Walpole's "The Castle of Otranto", first published in 1764. The first great practitioner of the Gothic novel, as well as the most popular novelist of the eighteenth century in England, was Ann Radcliffe. She added suspense, painted evocative landscapes and moods or atmosphere, portrayed increasingly complex, fascinatingly-horrifying, evil villains, and focused on the heroine and her struggle with the male tyrant. Her work "The Italian" (1797) have the ability to thrill and enthrall readers.

Inspired by Radcliffe, a more sensational type of Gothic romance, exploiting horror and violence, flourished in Germany and was introduced to England by Matthew Gregory Lewis with "The Monk" (1796). The novel follows the lust-driven monk Ambrosio from one abominable act to another ¿ rape, incest, matricide, burial alive ¿ to his death and well-deserved damnation.

The different schools, which are Female Gothic represented by Radcliffe and Male Gothic represented by Lewis, are distinguished by some critics as novel of terror and novel of horror. Sometimes this same distinction is tied to gender, with female equated with terror Gothic, and with male being equated with horror Gothic because both female and male writers can produce female and male Gothic.

In this paper, I will explain the characteristics of the Female Gothic and the Male Gothic and the difference between these genres, more specifically by focusing on the function of gender and the characterization of the main characters in Ann Radcliffe¿s "The Italian" and Matthew Lewis "The Monk". This is followed by the conclusion, in which the findings of this research will be laid out.