This article reports on the gothic novel and its characteristics, which move and heighten human emotions through the description of scary, fantastic, ghostly events. Aim of the planned article: The aim is to counteract the lack of clarity in the descriptions of the genre as well as in the literary terminology of the gothic novel in order to develop a more strictly differentiated concept of the genre. It is also about understanding the origins and cultural-historical significance of the horror novel as a popular border phenomenon between the Enlightenment and modernity.

Gothic novel, genre, shape, enlightenmen

DWDS- Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache „Gothic“

Carlick, Stephen. A guide to gothic literature. Retrieved 13 May 2025

DWDS - Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache „Schauerroman“

Hans Ulrich Seeber. Englische Literaturgeschichte. Stuttgart 2004. S.270-273

Wolfgang Trautwein. Erlesener Angst. Schauerliteratur im 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. München. 1980.S.15

Michael Bernsen. Angst und Schrecken in der Erzähliteratur des französischen und englischen 18.Jahrhunderts Wege modernen Selbstbewahrung im Auflösungsprozess theologisch- teleologischen Weltanschaung München. Fink 1996 S-103

Deutsches Wörterbuch. Gerhard Wahrig. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag GMBH. Gütersloh. 1994

Birch, Dinah. Gothic fiction. The Oxford Companion to English Literature (7th ed.). Oxford University Press. 2009

Conrad Host. Die literarische Angst. Das Schreckliche in dem Schauerromantik und Detektivgeschichte. Düsseldorf. Bertelsmann Unversitätsverlag.1974. S-13

Carrol Noel. Philosophy of Horor or Paradoxes of the Heart. London. Roudledge. 1990. p-179