Would God I could awaken!      For I dream I know not how, And my soul is sorely shaken Lest an evil step be taken, - Lest the dead who is forsaken May not be happy now. - Excerpt Bridal Ballad, Poe 1837

And travellers, now, within that valley,      Through the red-litten windows see Vast forms that move fantastically      To a discordant melody, While, like a ghastly rapid river,      Through the pale door A hideous throng rush out forever,      And laugh - but smile no more. - Excerpt The Haunted Palace,  Poe       1839

Throughout the years, the term "Gothic" has been used to describe something that is considered "obsolete, old-fashioned, or outlandish" (Cambridge 21) and lays its origins to a tribe of Germanic barbarians known as the Visigoths who "precipitated the fall of the Roman Empire" (Cambridge 21) in the 5th century AD.  But what do the Visigoths have to do with contemporary definition of the word "Gothic" and what does Gothic literature and the ever-expanding Gothic subculture group have to do with the Gothic period of the 5th century where anarchy and superstition ruled over the commonwealth?  These are questions that have plagued me for years, as once I decided to donn my blackest sable and join the ranks of the Gothic subculture, the very meaning of the movement seemed ever-present yet ill-defined. The Gothic Origins      It wasn't until 2004 where I became disatisfied with the University of Iowa's critera on the Gothic novel; or rather its phantom-like appearances of Poe inspired classes, yet vanishing like the ghosts of the genre, before I was ever able to apply for them.  I enrolled myself within an independent study course of my own devising which dealt with 17th-18th century Gothic literature, which is said to be the exact origins of the Gothic genre.       The birth of the Gothic novel was delivered by the man named Horace Walpole who wrote the book entitled The Castle of Otranto in 1764.  Walpole was a politician who was obsessed with Gothic architecture, an achitecture so named by the neo-classicalists of the time period who viewed the "old" architecture as simply "barbaric".  This "Barbaric Theory" was created and cultivated by Petrarch (1304-74) in 1333 who believed that the gothic architectural style was created by the Visigoths, as most buildings after the fall of the Roman Empire were attributed to their creation.  At the time period the term "Gothic meant rustic or coarse, like the Goths" (Frankl 314) and gradulaly by the supporters of the "Barbaric Theory" which was comprised mostly of architects who were disgusted by the gothic design (though not named so at the period, gothic architecture was simply "building") was able to attribute the name.  In 1510 a man who went by the so-called name of Pseudo-Raphael" spoke about the maniera tedescha, and in this report the theory "first advanced that the Gothic style had its origins in the forest, because Germans could not cut down trees, but bound together the branches of living trees, thus creating the pointed arch" (Frankl 314) for which the Gothic style was known.  So the neo-classicalists who were convinced that the "old" architecture was outdated, and overall barbaric in nature, thus named it Gothic.       So why is Horace Walpole attributed with the creation of the Gothic novel? Well - as I mentioned before Walpole wrote the book The Castle of Otranto which was a novel set in a Gothic castle (which somewhat resembled his own home Strawberry Hill) in which Walpole performed the ultimate experiement of blending the "old" romance with the modern.  Walpole's visionary creation dealt with "midieval culture, the aesthetics of original genius and the sublime, and the growing cult of Shakespearian tragedy" (Cambridge 25) along with the integration of strange occurances of unnatural order.  The "realists" of the time period (Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding) all attempted to define their fiction as moving away from otherworldy and supernatural elements as past romances were accustomed, condemning other works of "fancy" simply as a waste of time that offers no "useful instruction or moral improvement." (Cambridge 22) The revisionists (Warton and Hurd) "suggested that the Gothic age, precisely because of its relative barbarity, was especially conductive to the free play of imagination and that what the modern era had gained in civility it had lost in poetic inspiration." (Cambridge 27) So due to Walpole's novel which seemed based mostly on the "pleasures of the imagination" (Cambridge 23) instead of conforming to the "realists", was considered barbaric for its free flow of the imagination, thus "Gothic".       In 1981 the Punk subculture group comprised of misfits rebeling against oppresion of the time split into two sects, one in particular wore black clothes which were considered to be a backlash of the colorful clothing of the disco era.  The black clothing also symbolised a more melancholic state of being, which seemed somewhat familiar, that is, noted as resembling the gloomy, entrophic elements of most Gothic literature.  The new black adorn Punks began to attract a new audience of melancholy adicts whom, at the time, where looking for a place to fit in.  Anthony H. Wilson, the manager of Joy Division, while on BBC (British Broadcasting Commission) in 1979 labeled the band as "Gothic" in comparison to the pop music of the day.  Although the band did not dress as most Goths do today, the name "Gothic" stuck to their original sounding post-punk/new wave music.  It wouldn't be until later years that the newly named Gothic Subculture would conform to reflect the very literature, architecture, time period, barbaric tribe and outlandish natures that they were so named after.  Even now the subculture, through its music, fashion, art, literature and of course people are, are constantly defining themselves even to this day.  And now finally, my long awaited question has been answered, yet there are still many left to explore in the Gothic microcosm... Sources Frankl, Paul. "Gothic Architecture". Paul Crossley ed. Yale University Press. New Haven and          London, 2000 "The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction". Jerrold E. Hogle ed. Cambridge University      Press, New York: New York, 2003 "Wikipedia - Joy Division" Found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Division_(band) viewed       February 15th, 2005 Walpole, Horace. "The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Mother" Frederick S. Frank ed.      Canada: Toronto, 2000 "Religious Tolerance - The Goth Culture..." found at http://www.religioustolerance.org/goth.htm      viewed February 15th, 2005