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| Forum Home > The Gothic > Gothic monsters | ||
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Administrator Posts: 849 |
Dr Pedlingham's seminar will take place on Tues. evening. | |
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Member Posts: 61 |
Hello all! Welcome to this session on the Gothic and monstrosity - if you're here, feel free to say hi! | |
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Member Posts: 45 |
Hello! | |
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Member Posts: 56 |
Good evening. | |
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Administrator Posts: 849 |
Evening all. | |
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Administrator Posts: 849 |
Creatures of the night might not want to make their presence known to mortals. | |
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Member Posts: 61 |
Evening! I thought we might start this session by looking at a visual object, one really from the beginning of the Gothic as a cultural movement: Henry Fuseli's 1781 painting The Nightmare. | |
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Member Posts: 61 |
There's a link to it here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/John_Henry_Fuseli_-_The_Nightmare.JPG | |
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Member Posts: 56 |
Everyone carrying their crucifixes, Consecrated Host and garlic? | |
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Member Posts: 61 |
This painting, for me, picks up on many of the themes and ideas that are really originary to the Gothic, coming near the start of the 'first wave Gothic' movement. I'm just wondering what people make of this? Is there anything that stands out as being particularly strange?! | |
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Member Posts: 29 | Good evening. Do you consider society as being the most significant factor in the creation of gothic monsters? Or would you argue science / religion? | |
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Administrator Posts: 849 |
Bugger, forgot the garlic...sorry Graeme we'll start concentrating now... | |
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Administrator Posts: 849 |
What's the creature to the left of the demon? | |
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Member Posts: 61 |
Ah, good question Carly - can I hang onto that for just a minute? I think we'll pick up on that as we go through. | |
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Member Posts: 45 |
The mad eyed horse is really odd. Along with the goblin like creature | |
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Member Posts: 56 |
The succubus on her chest symbolising the incarnation of presumably sleep paralysis and evidently the black night mare in the background. (Also helpless pale maiden!!) | |
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Member Posts: 61 |
A strange figure indeed that both Neil and Carly are referring to - it seems to be a black horse, or a 'night mare'... | |
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Member Posts: 61 |
Indeed! The incubus demon is really striking, and our poor maiden - is she asleep? Dead? | |
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Administrator Posts: 849 |
So, this was painted around 15 years after The Castle of Otranto was published, is that right? | |
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Member Posts: 29 | What is on her dressing table? Is it a glass container for poison? | |
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