From Goth to Gothic (and Back Again)
"What's the connection between goths and Gothic?"
"I have the black clothes, but what do I need to do now to become Goth?"
"What do flying buttresses have to do with black clothing?"
I get questions like those (which are actual questions I've received) all the time, both from students in my Gothic literature courses and from visitors to this web site. Here's a very quick explanation of "Goth," "Gothic," "goth," and the connection between them.
Let's begin this way:
Q: why is Gothic literature called "Gothic"?
A: Architecture.
Yup, architecture.
When "Gothic" fictions were first being published in the later decades of the Eighteenth Century, they were regarded by literary critics and writers as crude, simplistic, and heavy-handed, what with their reliance on overwhelming emotion and florid description and supernatural elements. After all, the literature which dominated the C18 - which was known in England, after all, as the "Augustan" or neo-classical period - put great emphasis on formality and classical allusion, on reason, restraint, and didactic purpose. That literature was quite different from the sort of thing exemplified by Horace Walpole's over-the-top Gothic extravaganza Castle of Otranto (1764).
So why did critics adopt the architectural term "Gothic" to apply to this new type of literature? Because "Gothic" was the term applied to a style of architecture (dominant from the C12 through the C15) that was itself regarded as crude and primitive in contrast to the beauty, symmetry, and formality of classical (ancient Greek) architecture, and which was intended to create feelings of awe and powerful, almost mystical emotional responses in those who ventured into Gothic buildings, which typically were cathedrals and churches. (Gothic architecture, by the way, is characterized by, among other things, pointed arch windows, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses; it's actually an elegant and impressive set of styles.) So "Gothic" was, in the C18, a ready-to-hand term that already had been used to slander a cultural form as crude and primitive and concerned with emotion rather than reason, and it worked just as well when applied to this new form of C18 literature. (For more, see Cram on Gothic Architecture, a serious discussion of Gothic architecture written by Ralph Adams Cram, noted American architect famed for his buildings in the style known as Collegiate Gothic — and a writer of ghost stories himself.)
Where did "Gothic" originally come from, you ask? From the "Goths," a term describing a group of Germanic peoples — the Visigoths and the Ostragoths — who, after various treaties and alliances with the fading Roman Empire, invaded Italy and sacked Rome in the early 5th Century. So, to history, the "Goths" were considered primitive barbarians who destroyed classical culture.
But back in the C18, it turned out that what was intended as a term of disparagement and insult was quickly embraced by writers, readers, and purveyors of Gothic fiction, and from that was born the Gothic novel and the entire tradition of Gothic, ghostly, and horror literature. (Many of these works were called Gothic "romances"; for more on this particular term, see Lilia Milani's "The Romance and the Novel".
For more on this "Goth/Gothic" connection, see "The Gothic Tradition" by Kathy Prendergast [Hypertext Frankenstein Project, U Saskatchewan]. There's also a brief discussion at Lilia Melani's The Gothic Experience [CUNY - Brooklyn College].
BEING GOTH
So what does any of this have to do with today's "goths"? (I prefer the lower case "g" when referring to this cultural phenomenon, simply because the Other Goths came first, but most folks render it "Goth" when they're talking about the younger folks with the black clothing, black/purple/white-or-some combination-thereof hair, outsized religious jewelry, death obsession, vampire obsession, etc.) Today's Goths — and I'm no expert on the subject by any means, being too old to have ever been Goth — take the term from Gothic literature and, perhaps more directly, from the cinematic traditions that have devolved from Gothic and horror literature. For a good overview of Goth culture, browse the links at Carrie Carolin's ever-impressive Dark Side of the Net, especially the page devoted to "Gothic History and Lifestyle". Or take a long look here:
"From Goth to Gothic (and Back Again)."
