Anti-Enlightenment in the English Gothic novel and the German Schauerroman

Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) is recognized as the foundational text of the Gothic novel, establishing elements like fear, horror, and the supernatural. Although initially associated with English literature, the Gothic genre transcended linguistic boundaries through translation activities, gaining global visibility. Gothic narratives, stemming from Romantic literature as a stark contrast to Enlightenment ideals, defy the rationality of the time by glorifying emotions over reason. This study analyzes early examples of the Gothic novel from the Enlightenment period in English and German literature, highlighting its global impact and opposition to Enlightenment principles. We will first give a brief information about the Enlightenment period, then we will examine the gothic, which appears in German literature under the title of Schauerroman, in the context of the direct and indirect opposition to the Enlightenment in the works, using the method of comparative literary science. From this point of view, the study examines the gothic novel, of which there are early examples in the Enlightenment period, through works selected from English and German literature. The selection of the works was based on their characteristic features of the gothic novel genre. The research objects of the study are Horace Walpole's (1717-1797) The Castle of Otranto (The Castle of Otranto [1764]) and Mary Shelley's (1797-1851) Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818/1831), which are seen as the founding texts of the gothic genre in English literature, and Friedrich Schiller's (1759-1805) Der Geisterseher (The Haunting [1787]) and E. T.A. Hoffmann's (1776-1822) Die Elixiere des Teufels (The Devil's Elixirs [1815]). These works of English and German literature, written in the early gothic period, are analyzed comparatively in the axis of anti-Enlightenment. The theoretical background of the study is based on comparative literature. For this purpose, the concept of comparative literary studies is first explained, and then the Enlightenment thought, and the Romantic and Gothic literature genres are discussed. The theoretical background of the study is based on the science of comparative literature. For this reason, the concept of comparative literary studies is first explained and then the Enlightenment thought, and the Romantic and Gothic literary genres are discussed. In the next stage, the gothic novel genre, which stands out with its opposition to the Enlightenment, is examined in its conceptual and genre development, and the works selected as the object of research in order to concretize the conceptual-theoretical part of the study are analyzed first individually and then comparatively in the light of comparative literary theory. In this way, the basic features of the gothic novel genre are revealed both theoretically and practically.