BBC Documentary "The Art of Gothic"

BBC. (2014). 'The Art of Gothic' .

To run a brief review of Andrew Graham Dixon’s series of ‘The Art of Gothic’ I found the programme very interesting as it covered much of the known information surrounding Gothic but also looked into areas that I myself was unaware of. Gothic literature and the social movement that follows it is something of great interest to me and a cultural movement that I have loved for a long time. That being said I did find Andrew a tad overly enthusiastic at points especially in combination with the rather overly dramatic music but then again that is part of the Gothic movement, to create an atmosphere and dramatic impression. Overall the programme itself was very interesting and I was pleased that it covered the gothic genre right through from its birth in the dark ages up towards the modern movements of 19th century novella. 

The Monk
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In episode one Andrew covered the birth of the Gothic movement and its development throughout the 18th century in the form of literature and art. The term Gothic is actually one first coined in the early medieval period as a title for a style of architecture dedicated to reaching God, therefore many of the doors, windows and spires point upwards into a peak. This is commonly seen on churches to enable people to be closer to God. The programme then goes on to question what the Gothic is and how it has developed throughout an industrial society, he begins by discussing the very first Gothic novel ‘The Castle of Otranto’ by Horace Walpole (1764) which was one of the first novels to explore a concept of hauntings and supernatural connections. In addition to this he also discussed how art and literature combined and continued to have a dramatic influence on our perceptions of horror, talking in particular about the novel ‘The Monk’ by Matthew Lewis which caused a great deal of reaction during the time as it demonised societies trust in religious figures through the temptation of the devil, rape crimes and sex. 
Dixon goes on in Episode 2 to discuss how the impact of the industrialised Victorian era throughout the 19th century developed conceptions of horror further into installing the sense of fear that is so prominent within todays concepts. Throughout this era the fascination with science continued to grow alongside Britain's development in production and distribution. To many this fascination was an appalling concept that violated a connection with religion, for example Darwinism and the horror at the thought that a human may derive from an animal. This concept created further fear through the imagery of werewolves and we see in novels such as ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ this idea of mans manipulation through science and the dangers of dabbling with the body. Many gothic writers such as Bram Stroker and Mary Shelley wrote for the purpose of combining fear and romance, appealing to the human desire for temptation that had long since been discouraged. In the beginning many writers such as Shelley were disapproved of due to their descriptions of grave robbing and attempted acts of God, such as creating Frankenstein's creature where he questions "Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave", concepts considered by many immoral to depict. This then lead on to the final episode which explored much of the modern known concepts of gothic such as the horror movement of the monster and the murderer whereby iconic film makers such as Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ began to install fear through more violent tones as opposed to a direct reliance on atmosphere and the sublime. A concept that we began to see develop at the birth of Bram Stokers ‘Dracula’ and Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ that embodied a sense of violence and monster imagery that is so common in modern film.