简论爱伦•坡的建筑意象(4)
2.1 The Origin of Gothic
The term of Goth was originally derived from the Germanic peoples (Teutonic) as the name of some Gothic tribes. Among them, the Gothic people living in the northern and eastern borders of the Roman Empire, together with the Lombards, Vandals and Huns, frequently crossed the Danube to attack Rome, and ultimately destroy the powerful Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, which have brought this civilization into centuries of chaotic darkness. (Markman Ellis, 2000:22) After that, the Goths assimilated with other nations, and gradually disappeared as a nation from the history. However, the brave and fierce image of the Goths, the kind of hate and fear mixed feelings and the psychological trauma they had brought to southern Europeans, especially to the Italian people, did not disappear with the passage of time. Therefore, the word Gothic gradually contains the multiple meanings of “barbaric” and “medieval” and “supernatural”. A thousand years after the demise of the Roman Empire, “one Italian called Vasari (1511-1574) identified the Gothic term to refer to a medieval building style that Renaissance thinkers did not like very much from the dust of sealed history.” (Zhao, 2010:27) Since then, the “Gothic” term is generally considered to be a certain kind of architectural style. Gothic architectural style represents the highest achievements of European medieval architecture, which originated in France in the second half of the 11th century, and came into popularity all around Europe in the 12-15 century, mainly used in the construction of churches and castles (both military and civilian). However, at first people regard “Gothic architecture as a ‘barbaric form’, and earliest meaning of ‘Gothic’ is derogatory, referring this building is extremely rough, scoff, dismissive.” (Poe, 2005:2)
Gothic architecture is characterized by the towering spires, tall and massive stone walls, narrow windows, mottled glass, gloomy and dark room, hidden tunnel, dark damp cellar and underground charnel. “In the eyes of those who advocate the ancient Greece and Roman civilization as Renaissance thinkers, Gothic architecture that represents recession, barbaric and dark, is the perfect symbol of the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ that replaced the brilliant civilization of ancient Rome.”
2.2 Influences of Traditional Gothic Style on European Literature
Under the influence of the many Renaissance thinkers, the word Gothic was gradually given the meanings of barbaric, terror, recession, and the mysterious Dark Ages. At the end of the 18th century, there was a great mass fervor for the medieval Gothic architecture in European, especially in Britain. Thus, the British race to design and construct Gothic architecture, like large and small churches and monasteries. However, King Henry VIII rose against the Holy See, founded the state religion, which gradually led the pre-existing churches, monasteries of Gothic architecture to ruins. To the late 18th century, the term Gothic has gradually become a synonym of a new genre of fiction. “The book is usually set background to the castle ruins or wilderness, the story often happened in the past, especially in the Middle Ages; the story horrific and stimulating, filled with murder, violence, revenge, rape, incest, or even often ghosts or other supernatural phenomenon; the novel surrounded by gloomy atmosphere, mystery, horror, and full of suspense.” (Poe, 2005:2)
In 1764, Horace Walpole (1717-1797) published his famous novel The Castle of Otranto, the novel was a great success since it was published and published again in less than four month. Walpole plus a subtitle in the second edition of the book, name it as “a Gothic story”, thus creating a precedent for Britain and the West Gothic literature. The Castle of Otranto was sold so well all the way that many writers competed to imitate. In the 1790s, the United Kingdom sprung up a large number of famous Gothic novels such as Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian (1794), Matthew Lewis’ The Monk (1796), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Charles Maturin’s Rover Melmoth. These novels have caused a sensation back at the time, becoming an integral and important part of the history of English literature, and drive the development of the Gothic novel to certain degrees. “To some extent, this period of the history of the British novel is mainly composed by the Gothic novels.” (Li, 2005:4) They create a large number of Gothic novel “not only as a genre of fiction in the UK that determine their own status indisputably, but also a profound impact on other countries’ literature, especially for Germany and the United States.”