ABSTRACT:Recently, the gothic culture gradually has captured the public’s attention with the newly-born mess media means such as the modern films and novels, and particularly regained its prosperity by motion pictures. Long literary history as it has, the gothic literature, emerged in the late 18th century, has always been classified as the gloomy, grotesque mysterious literature and has associated with darkness, bizarreness, and ghosts; therefore, it is usually defined as non-mainstream literature as well as a challenge to the conventional aesthetic standpoint, which gives it an alias: the Dark Literature.
The truth is, however, it is not only a special branch of Romanticism but also an extreme of aestheticism because it always demonstrates a disposition of isolation, alienation and gloom by depicting the dark, ugly and odd side of life to reflect and recall the beauty of life, to explore the thought-provoking social issues like discrimination, wars, hatred or even the negative influence science may exert on human beings. The spiritual obsession to death has driven the Gothic literature continuously to look for another perspective of life, suffering and death so that the most significant representative of gothic literature has generated, that is, vampires. Lots of gothic fictions choose vampires as the subjects as well as the motion pictures, which can be considered as the impulse of the renaissance of gothic literature. Several reputable gothic movies, especially those from Hollywood, contribute a lot to the rise of gothic such as Dracula, Interview with the Vampires, series of films from Tim Burton and Twilight series, the most popular and appealing film recently. The purpose of this essay is to explore and discuss the value of this literary branch that has been ignored and discredited for centuries.
Key words: Gothic Literature; Films; Romanticism; Aestheticism
中文摘要:近几年来，哥特文化借助着电影和小说这种大众媒体的新兴手段逐渐吸引人们的注意力，尤其是通过电影这一方式再兴繁荣。虽然哥特文学历史悠久，诞生于18世纪末，但一直被归于阴郁和怪诞的神秘文学，并和黑暗，奇异，鬼魅等相关，所以一直被认为是非主流文学，是一种对传统美学观点的冲击，又被称为“黑暗文学”。
但它恰恰是浪漫主义的一枝独秀，也是唯美主义的极端表现，总是表现出一种孤僻疏离的，阴沉的精神气质，通过刻画丑恶、阴暗、怪异的一面来反衬生活中的美，去探讨那些引人深思的社会问题，歧视、战争、仇恨甚至是科学可能引起的负面作用。精神上对死亡的迷恋，驱使哥特文化不停地试图去找寻对生活、痛苦和死亡的另外一种思考，所以吸血鬼是哥特小说中最典型的角色。而如今，哥特式电影的出现也大大推动了哥特文化，将其推向了高潮。好莱坞一系列的电影，如《惊情四百年》，《夜访吸血鬼》，好莱坞导演蒂姆波顿的一系列作品，以及最近大吸引人眼球的《暮光》系列，都把吸血鬼文化带到了风口浪尖。本篇论文正是对于这一直被人们并不为重视的文学分支，进行探索与思考。
关键字：哥特文学；电影；浪漫主义；唯美主义
