The History behind Gothic Novels
The historical context of the peak of the Gothic novel period was expansive but tense, partially due to England’s relationships to the people it took charge of. Meanwhile, science was poking holes in religion. Gothic novels and colorful propaganda filled in some of the holes. England’s secret societies promulgated stories about supernatural ancestors, "proving" they had the right to rule.
True Gothic fiction always includes the clashing relationship of the present time with foundational history, usually in relationship to the occult, to make a statement about society: that’s one of the genre’s most core definitions. The development of that type of fiction arose when England’s trade partners, slaves, harems, colonies and immigrants threatened the citizens’ old way of life, even while it created abundance and variety. Imperialism created unease all around, and the sense of living in a precarious system built on oppression of others, as well as diluting the British ethnicity, disturbed Gothic authors, which obviously forms many of their novels. The vital mutual impact between Gothic fiction and political occult mythology deserves to be highlighted.
Some powerful people grew increasingly controlling. They tended to be represented often as characters in Gothic fiction. There were also problems from the curses placed on objects they stole, the ghostly history in the castles they lives in as well as the hidden “monstrous” affects of their multi-racial appetites. The world felt unnatural when Gothic literature was in development, and authors like the Bronte sisters dramatized symbolic ways to bring culture back to pre-colonial balance.
The sensational history associated with Gothic fiction included outlandish competing mythologies revised to excuse the rule of kings over multiple countries. The vital mutual impact between Gothic fiction and political occult mythology deserves to be highlighted. The famous folks who channelled influential lies about the nature of our society are certainly as intriguing, outrageous, and vivid as fiction, so come along for a wild ride! The progression of mythologizing didn’t end with the main time period associated with Gothic literature. Neither does the literature, as contemporary novelists are still going strong.
The nostalgic supernaturalism common to traditional Gothic fiction reflected a healthy trend arising naturally in individuals inspired by their reaction against the logical, Darwinian utilitarianism of the Enlightenment and Industrial Age. It also allowed, affected, and processed cultural interests that were fostered by social engineering by famous historical figures for their countries’ global domination agendas. The stories of ancient mythologies were twisted and combined to excuse nobility, and wars, as methods of bringing about a return to the eternal realm in which they existed in a state beyond ordinary humans.
As political powers shifted, the desperate story-tellers competed and settled on the best iconic figures to emphasize to the public to capture their imagination. Elizabethan imperialist John Dee evoked the name of the returning glorious King Arthur of Troy the reason for the British right to take over other countries. Eventually, England would colonize India with that line of thinking.
Countering that claim to supernatural heritage, the Russian White Tsar prophecy was used elsewhere to gather different cultures under the umbrella, as they vyed with Britain for rule of Eastern countries. The popular Buddhist prophecy of the White Tsar was used by the Russian, Madam Blavatsky, as part of Theosophicaly. Russian intelligence schemed, using its mixture of Eastern and Western supernatural elements and alternative history to convince countries such as Mongolia to be on its side against British imperialism. Ghandi was swayed by the competing Russian Tsar from Shambhala myth.
One of the most important aspects of Theosophy came from the fiction of the most successful Victorian novelist, the Baron Bulwer-Lytton (“It was a dark and stormy night.”) His work was Visionary Gothic, haunted with madness, dread, death, melodrama, elegant language, high romance, trances, rituals, magic, and the supernatural. In 1943, he even turned his family home Gothic, including turrets, gargoyles. He wrote of an ancient race, and the guardian of the threshold, in Rosicrucian-fashion, He was a member of Parliament and Secretary of State for the colonies. He was a versatile literary figure and fashionista, the editor of magazines, a playwright. He influenced other Gothic authors greatly, and brought regular British contemporary literary settings into favor.
Nazism, which ran with Theosophy, was also highly influenced in its imperialist ideas by the alleged Rosicrucian Grand Patron Bulwer-Lytton’s utopian novels about supermen and the ancient Nordics, anti-gravity space ships, life extension, and hollow Earth.
These are only a very a few of the many characters covered below. For all these colorful cultural figures to manage all the amalgamations of mythos, from the Elizabethan launch to modern times has required some amusingly bizarre mental contortions all ‘round.
Gothic literature revived the exotic spiritual past in which such unsettling events had been still taken at face value, allowing the edgy exhilaration of there being more to the world than science could explain. This popular mode of entertainment opened up the world to believe in such ideas as the Hollow Earth. While showing the doomed excitement of scientist/alchemists such as Dr. Frankenstein, the return of monsters, vampires, ghosts, curses on objects guiltily stolen through imperialism, haunted ancestral pictures, and such reflected the readers’ deep fears of the return of very real violent assaults by the church.
Let's look at how the past was cleverly changed to manipulate people through massive propaganda cults and entertainment. When major superpowers incorporated Eastern and Western mysticism to draw as many people together to control the globe, some of them claimed their ancestors came from Atlantis, and others claimed they came from Shambalha. Others said it was all “same difference.”
Gothic fiction is beautiful, and most of the authors relatively innocent, even when translating Rosicrucian mysticism into fictional form. The stories are unique, most not mimicking the dominant political mythologies in use at the time, but in questioning their underlying imperialism. Gothic stories are creatively intertwined with the ancestral privilege mythologies, even sometimes starting new ones, such as with The Coming Race. The relationship of the fiction with its context is fascinating and provides a literary entry into beliefs that shaped our world to make it what it is today.
Historical Gothic fiction was the forerunner of many forms of literature. Returning you to the world of contemporary entertainment, the treatise ends by pointing out the similarity between Gothic fiction and Psychological Suspense. Both forms of narrative include domineering antagonists who are controlling, manipulating the psyche with murderous intent, along with compelling hypnotic qualities that make it hard for us to look away. Many great books and movies demonstrate some degree of alignment with Gothic history. Often the overlap is wonderful, such as in Stonehearst Asylum.
Encore: A Contemporary Love Story of Hypnotic Abduction is an example of a Gothic novel that addresses the relevant history and adheres to the tradition while exploring how it can shed light on current times.
Encore! The red crushed velvet curtain rises.
