He declares terror to be the “ruling principle” in the sublime as he states: In this work, Burke also gave justification to the continuance of the Gothic genre as he identifies and highly emphasizes terror as being the ruling attribute of the sublime. These guidelines laid out by Burke became the structure by which all Gothic scenes were constructed. He also points out that its nature that primarily conveys the sublime. Some of the main Characteristics that Burke (1834) identified as ones that lead to sublimity include: obscurity, eternity and infinity, the crowded and the confused, power, vastness, magnificence, darkness, and excessiveness. The Sublime in Gothic Fictionīurke defined precisely what is to be considered sublime. In this Walpole is demonstrating how the sublime is a necessary ingredient to the Gothic genre. In this description, Walpole is essentially offering a definition of the sublime as it is the sublime that elevates the “fancy” as it both fears and finds astonishment in the “boundless realms of invention”, but can delight in it as no real danger is found as it is “conducted” by “the rules of probability”.
He states that in Gothic texts, it is necessary to leave, “the powers of fancy at liberty to expatiate through the boundless realms of invention, and thence of creating more interesting situations… to conduct the mortal agents… according to the rules of probability” (Walpole, 1964:7). In the Preface to his second edition, Walpole strives to construct a structure by which the Gothic novel can be defined. It was the first novel to receive the title of “Gothic”, and it was also one of the first to use and develop the sublime. The first author to utilize these elements in a large literary work was Horace Walpole in his novel, The Castle of Otranto. These became the components that gave Gothic literature its very definition.
It was not long before the sublime idea of terrible nature grew until it included even more of the supernatural such as fantastical beings, witchcraft, and other extraordinary phenomena (Kemp, 2001, WEB). “Graveyard Poetry” became increasingly popular during the early 1700’s, and paved the way for what would officially become “Gothic” literature. In other words it’s the sublime imagery that produces the required effect. On why these poems are effective author Fred Botting (2001:39) states, “the awful obscurity of the settings of Graveyard poetry elevate the mind to ideas of wonder and divinity”. This group became known as the “Graveyard Poets” or the “Graveyard School”. One group in particular began using the ideas of terror, death, and the supernatural, in combination with that which is terrible in nature to create the sublime.
In the beginning of gothic fiction era, it was not long after the translation of mythological texts that artists began experimenting with ways to elevate and transport their audiences with the use of the sublime. By taking into account the definitions of the attributes, you can clearly see that one of the criteria for a gothic horror story is the use of light and darkness to create a sinister atmosphere. Science fiction is fiction based and claims scientific discoveries and often deals with convincing technological events, such as, space travel or life on other planets.
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