“Discuss the extent to which the desire for dominance is a key feature in gothic texts. Refer to three gothic texts you have studied. Angela Carters The Bloody Chamber Patrick Sskinds Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Samuel Taylor Coleridges poems Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel”

Historically, the gothic genre has been characterized as an incorporation of fiction, Romanticism and horror. The word gothic stems from the Germanic tribe, The Goths, who invaded rival tribes, dominantly altering their ideals and traditions to coincide with the gothic traditions they had formed. The Goths influenced a contradictory convention of gothic, which challenged the norm and ultimately became a contextual basis for literature of the same genre. Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto (1764) outlined the archetypal origins of gothic fiction, producing common motifs explored throughout the genre, which impacted upon later gothic texts. The gothic influence created new ideas and viewpoints in society, its scandalous and grotesque nature often creating societal divisions. In gothic literature, characters are either the oppressed or the oppressors, resu…(short extract)