Characteristics of gothic body

The word "Gothic" has rich meanings in English. It is a literary vocabulary, a historical term and a professional term in architecture and art. Gothic novels began in England in the late18th century and are a special genre of romantic literature. Critics call it "black romanticism". The so-called "black" is mainly reflected in two aspects, highlighting violence and terror in the plot. Thematically, it makes a deep exploration by revealing the darkness in human nature, especially the moral exploration. Gothic novels use supernatural materials, fiction, imagination, surrealism, reality and other artistic techniques to describe extraordinary time, show extreme situations and scenes, and devote themselves to expressing the inner world of characters. At the same time, it exposes all kinds of dangers and evils with unique and powerful shocking power, trying to awaken ignorant and numb people.

First, the Gothic theme.

The theme of Harry Potter follows the consistent theme of Gothic novels: the conflict between good and evil and moral exploration. This work reveals the eternal struggle between good and evil in the wizard world, and the conflicting factions of good and evil are also obvious: the righteous wizard headed by Dumbledore and the dark wizard headed by Voldemort.

Harry Potter is very entertaining, but there is no lack of implicit value judgment. From a certain point of view, the struggle between Harry and Voldemort is a struggle with another "self", just like everyone is constantly exploring morality and value during their growth. two

Two: the atmosphere of terror, mysterious color?

A striking feature of Gothic novels is aesthetic splendor, and its psychological basis is inner fear. This novel is full of horror and mystery. The magic school in Harry Potter is not only mysterious, but also full of mysteries, such as winding dark stairs, deep corridors, haunted basements and so on.

Harry Potter, like traditional Gothic novels, often uses natural scenery to pave the way for its mystery. Hogwarts is surrounded by a vast and mysterious forbidden forest, and school students are not allowed to get close to this forest without permission. There are all kinds of magical animals and unknowable secrets in the forest.

Gothic novels often use dreams and language descriptions to increase the mysterious atmosphere and promote the plot development. The wizarding world uses astrology and crystal balls to predict the future, while students in wizarding schools learn divination through special courses.

Three: the combination of reality and surrealism.

Gothic novels break the framework of rationalism. Gothic novelists are not dominated by rationality and bound by traditional aesthetics and morality, and write supernatural things by "automatic writing method". The story of wizards and witchcraft is the oldest theme in western literary creation. Rowling transplanted it into the modern society, and started the witchcraft story from the Yangtze River of British campus life in the 1990s, and expressed campus life in the magical world of witchcraft, but the magical world was not completely separated from the real world, but in the same time and space. The character, fate and life growth of the task in the changeable magic story are exactly the credible people and things created by Rowling. In the magic school, we can recognize people with different personalities: the upright and powerful Dumbledore; Professor McGonagall with a serious appearance and a kind heart; Hermione, smart, arrogant and chivalrous; And many positive tasks are not only glorious images, but also personality weaknesses. Like Hagrid and Ron. Some clown-like characters also have a lovely side. These characters are vivid and real, and readers seem to be able to find them at any time. It can be said that reality and surrealism are perfectly matched here.

Harry Potter inherits the spirit of literary criticism of Gothic novels, reflects the dark society and ugly reality of the wizarding world, and makes the work have deeper humanistic care, thus causing readers to think about practical problems. I think this is also the ultimate reason why the works are popular all over the world and deeply loved by readers.