Elegy and the Gothic:: The Common Grounds

This article deals with the Gothic, and seeks to broaden the generic horizon of the study of elegy. It also argues that the relationship of the elegy to the Gothic and vice-versa is much more symbiotic, more rooted in deep-seated common grounds, than both their immediate similarities and their obvious differences might suggest. Gray, Richard Bentley, and Walpole revise the elegy and instigate a revisionist 'Gothic'. John Milton proves to be just as influentially Janus-faced in his extremely classical and thoroughly rebellious use of the funereal pastoral elegy. Gothic works continue to be fed by the elegy, and they therefore continue to find new methods for drawing the inconsistent belief-systems of the times into the vital quest to keep generating meanings in the face of personal and cultural death.