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Terror has been central to Gothic literature since it first emerged in the turbulent years of the eighteenth century as an exorsive force for the fears, desires and anxieties that plagued society as it developed toward capitalism. In the contemporary sense, terror has been at the centre of political discourse since the beginning of postmodernism, more recently as a definitive element in the orientation of society and mass culture. Significantly, awareness of terror, terrorism and death via media representation has become a source of cultural fear and also, according to postmodern theorists, of a symbolic reality that somehow gives grounding to our 'knowledge' of self, society and history and also to our acceptance of hegemonic power. This perspective on terror highlights an important point relating to terror, history and literature: that our postmodern situation is not dissimilar to that in which the original Gothic reached its peak after the French Revolution.
In this late eighteenth century context, Gothic terror and anxiety related to a rapidly changing world defined by violence, disorientation and loss of meaning and faith. The repercussions of the 'age of reason' spawned terror novels such as, the most notable, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which articulated fears to do with the power of science, godlessness, social anarchy and privation. Interestingly, these issues re-emerged with vigour at the dawn of 'postmodernity'. The last fifty years has seen, particularly in art, a rejection of overarching concepts of truth and reality, a fascination with technological and media explosion, an increasingly isolating sense of self and an imposing increase in secularism, all of which has been transposed onto a concept of terror that is both pervasive and uncanny. The overriding atmosphere of terror that loomed over Europe after revolution in France can thus be seen to have echoes in our post-9/11, mass media-induced, terrorised culture.
Although generated by different events, terror and its effects today mimic their eighteenth century parallels and this is evidenced clearly through Gothic-postmodernist fiction. Ronald Paulson has noted that the early or original Gothic was sophisticated by events in France, adding that many Gothic plots from the period are stories of justification followed by horrible excess (Paulson 2004, 274, 271). Notably, the Gothic at the time became an outlet for responding to terror. Similarly,...