The gothic lives in the cracks of Reason. A moment of bewilderment, a split second of disorientation that transports us outside recognisable boundaries. Textually, it is presented as a rhetorical effect which challenges the reader`s epistemological assurances. Order might immediately be called in again, by means of authorial explanation, bringing the readers to their senses and making the eerie instant recoil back to its crack. But the gothic will remain as a seed of uncertainty lodged in the foundation of Reason ready to stem again, or perhaps, wedge its way in deeper bringing the whole building down.
From this angle, the gothic constitutes a response to a disquietude; a reaction that takes place when we are pushed beyond familiar cultural limits. It is curious to note how this gothic cultural uneasiness frequently unfolds into political matters and questions of national identity. As a discourse the gothic began with English novelists in the 18th century, encompassing an answer to the anxiety caused by the French Revolution across the channel. With the proliferation of the novel in the 19th and 20th centuries, gothic images and conventions found their way around the world and, in the 21st century, they still linger on strongly in books and in the cinema. Although the gothic discourse is a trans-cultural and trans-historical phenomenon, its significance can only be recognised in a defined space and time. That is to say, the meanings and implications of these conventions have to be culturally and historically observed.
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