The Castle of Otranto

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What things have you heard called “goth” or “gothic”? What elements do these things have in common? Where does this term come from?

Teaching Suggestion: Students are likely to have heard this term in one or more contexts—used informally to describe fashion, music, or a worldview or used in a more academic sense to describe literature, art, film, architecture, etc. The first part of this prompt is intended to get students thinking about how widespread the term’s use is and what—if anything—these uses have in common. Discussion in small groups or as a class will facilitate students’ understanding of these points. Unless you have already studied the term’s origins, few students are likely to connect it with the Goths who invaded the Roman Empire in the third century. The resources below should be helpful in clarifying this point and making students’ understanding of the term “gothic” more cohesive.

• This style guide from the Mayfair Gallery explains the history of the term and offers visual examples from various disciplines.