02-05-2010, 11:24 AM
Paigenumber is right. It's a very fine line and maybe it can't actually be drawn with any accuracy. I have a quote from something I wrote on another boards once when discussing the meaning of gothic literature and music:
Without going into an entire rant, I've always considered Gothic to be the dark underside of the romantic movement. It's interesting that the original gothic literature arose right along with the Romantic movement and later goth music arose right along with the so called New Romantic bands. I'm not sure about film, but I'll bet that the era of the really good gothic horror movies arose right about the same time that romances were also popular. Really I consider gothic a subdivision of romance. Both require drama and high emotional intensity and seem to focus more on relationships between people than outright action. (I know that now that I've said this people will point out a million exceptions to this rule...but I still think it holds true as a generalization.)
Without going into an entire rant, I've always considered Gothic to be the dark underside of the romantic movement. It's interesting that the original gothic literature arose right along with the Romantic movement and later goth music arose right along with the so called New Romantic bands. I'm not sure about film, but I'll bet that the era of the really good gothic horror movies arose right about the same time that romances were also popular. Really I consider gothic a subdivision of romance. Both require drama and high emotional intensity and seem to focus more on relationships between people than outright action. (I know that now that I've said this people will point out a million exceptions to this rule...but I still think it holds true as a generalization.)
