On The Connections Between Gothic Literature And Other Gothic Arts

Arts, in a broad sense, including literature, architecture, painting, music, film and many other fields, are mutually connected to each other. It is of particular academic value to study the inter-connections between different fields of a same art school. As people are becoming more and more interacted with each other, the cross-disciplinary study has become a trend. Thus this thesis from such aspect has a profound realistic meaning. Through the long history of art, one of the most influential should be the Gothicism. It first appeared in the Middle Age, revived in the late 18th and 19th century, and exerted an unique charm in modern and contemprary period. Moreover, the word Gothic crossed different fields, shared by architecture, sculpture, painting, literature, film, music, photography, fashion and so on. However, for a long time, most criticism mainly focuses on the single field of Gothic arts, for example, a lot of research on Gothic architecture and Gothic novels. The overlapping section has been neglected. Therefore, exploring the connections between each subject of Gothic arts is the key point of this thesis.After reading a number of literature and art history and critic works, the writer of this paper tries to research from a cross-disciplinary point of view, every concrete forms of Gothicism in different historical period and in different art fields, the relationship between Gothic literature and other Gothic arts, and their commonness in aesthetic, social and personal value, so as to make Gothic art and its unique charm familiar to more people, and provide reference to more cross-subjects study.This thesis consists of three parts, an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its main contents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which mainly illustrates the theoretical and realistic significance of the study on Gothic arts. Then it introduces the current situation of the research on the inter-relationship of Gothic arts, the predicted goal as well as the overall structure of this thesis.The second part is the main body, which is made up of three chapters: Chapter One introduces the development of Gothic arts from a historical point of view. It first explores the origin of Gothicism. Then it introduces the development of Gothicism in various art fields, including Gothic architecture, sculpture, painting in the Middle Age; Gothic literature, mainly the Gothic novels in the late 18th and 19th century as well as in modern and contemporary period; Gothic film, Gothic music, Gothic fashion developed after people entering in the audiovisual age.Chapter Two analyzes the linking or connective function of Gothic literature in Gothic arts and its inner connections with other Gothic arts. This chapter first discusses the revival and lineage of Gothicism. The Gothic revival movement was spread during the 18th century, therein brooding the literature genre of Gothic novel. The lineage of Gothic elements is mainly from three aspects: lineage of the theme of darkness, ugliness and death, mysterious and supernatural atmosphere and wild imagination and passion. The second section summarizes the Gothic elements taking on in Gothic novels, including horror, mystery and supernatural, by illustrating with some representative literature works. The last part of this chapter explains the influence of Gothic elements in literature towards Gothic film, Gothic music and fashion. Influence on film is mainly discussed from theme, character and setting.Chapter Three summarizes the common value of all Gothic arts. The first part expounds the common aesthetic value of Gothic arts from three kinds of aesthetic theories, the death aesthetics, the beauty of ugliness and the sublimity theory. The following part continues to dig the social and cultural roots of the production of every Gothic art forms and their common social value. The last part discusses Gothic arts'common value on individual human being.The last part is conclusion, which makes a summary to the preceding critique, and points out the purpose of this thesis. The word Gothic has crossed different time and space, taking on various kinds of artistic forms which are inter-connected with each other. As a counter style of Rationalism, Gothicism emphasizes extreme emotions and the dark side of humanity. It urges people to examine themselves, by which their mood can be let out, mentality edified and morality purified.