%0 Generic
%A Schardt, Andreas
%D 2013
%F heidok:15152
%K Gothic, pastoral, hybridity, Golden Age, mode, reception of antiquity
%R 10.11588/heidok.00015152
%T Gothic Pastoral. Terrible Idylls in Late Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature
%U https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/15152/
%X The Gothic and the pastoral have mostly been regarded as entirely antithetical modes so far. However, there are numerous texts in English literature where an overlap between both forms can be observed. Authors like H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft or William Golding, for instance, employ depictions of an idyllic nature or the motif of the Golden Age as typical of the pastoral in combination with Gothic features like the insistence on a barbaric past of superstition and anarchy threatening an enlightened present. The dissertation investigates why such a blending of the two modes is possible. It demonstrates that already in antiquity the pastoral contains four features whose continuation in English literature allows for a co-occurrence with the Gothic. By analysing a selected body of texts which exhibit the resulting Gothic-pastoral mode, the study gives an overview of its constituents and different manifestations in the English literary history. The main focus is on the late nineteenth and the twentieth century, where there is a proliferation of texts using this hybrid form. At a theoretical level, the study also contributes to the question of how to define such abstract terms as ‘Gothic’, ‘pastoral’ and ‘mode’ as well as to the discussion to what extent the Gothic and the pastoral still live on today.