(During the Renaissance, ‘gothic’ was a label for all things barbarous.) The next notable gothic novel was Vathek: An Arabian Tale (1782) by William Beckford, and a genre was born. Walpole used ‘gothic’ to signal the novel’s medieval setting. The first truly Gothic novel was The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story byHorace Walpole (1764), a tale of intrigue and murder prefaced by an ominous prophecy. It grows out of the Jacobean Revenge Tragedy with some concurrent development with the French roman noir and the German Schauerroman or ‘shudder novel’. I love this question! Where to start…? In English literary history, the ‘gothic romance’ is a key part of the development of the modern novel.

Let’s start with dummy’s guide to the genre first – What is Gothic? Does it have a canon? If so, what would you consider the classics in that canon? They sent it to Gothic scholar and author Stephen Carver, who opened my eyes to my ignorance.ĪC: Thank you Stephen for agreeing to this interview. Indeed, I would not have known to even ask these questions until I submitted my MS for a review at the UK Literary Consultancy under the National Arts Council Manuscript Assessment Scheme managed by SingLit Station. What is Gothic literature? Is there a difference between the modern and Victorian variety? Or the Asian and European ones? And why is it considered part of the literature of subversion? I’m a neophyte to the genre. Extract of an interview on the ‘Essence of the Gothic’ with novelist Audrey Chin

The Ash House by Audrey Chin