MONSTRUOSITY, PSYCHE AND THE SUPERNATURAL: AN ANALYSIS OF THE GOTHIC TRADITION OF 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE

Abstract

This article proposes a critical and comparative analysis of English literature of the Gothic and horror traditions, through the works of Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and H.P. Lovecraft. The main objective is to understand how these authors constructed, transformed and influenced the main themes of the imaginary of fear, such as monstrosity, madness, the double and the unknown, from the 18th century to the present day. The methodology used is based on textual analysis, historical contextualization and an interdisciplinary perspective, supported by the theoretical framework of Botting (1996), Punter (1996), and Lovecraft (2006 [1927]), among others. The works analyzed include Frankenstein (1818), The Tell-Tale Heart (1845), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and The Call of Cthulhu (1928), chosen for their aesthetic and ideological representativeness. The aim is to demonstrate that, despite being distant in time, these texts share structural elements that continue to influence contemporary literature, cinema and pop culture. Furthermore, the study seeks to highlight how notions of identity, science, morality and fear are represented in different sociocultural contexts, revealing the permanence and adaptability of the Gothic genre in the Anglophone literary tradition.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56238/sevened2025.021-038