The Soul Of Black

Since was born in the later18th century, the British gothic novel has beenoverlooked and depreciated as the influence of western traditional cultural concept.For example，over the years, critics have criticized its terror, violence, dark keynote, etc.However, as a fiction genre, its internal literary value and significance will never befaded for the criticism of the critics.This article started with the theoretical perspectives such as social historycriticism, intertextuality, and parallel study. First, we summarized the origin anddevelopment of gothic·, and researched the rising up of British gothic novel. Weconsidered some historical factors like politics, economy, philosophy, religion, literarytradition and the transformation of aesthetic conception as the environment for itsemergence and development. Then, we expounded the value of gothic novel using thetexts. In the aesthetics aspect, it inherited the tragedy color of western traditionalpoetics and the theory of treating ugliness as beauty, deepened the lofty theory andweird theory. In the ideology aspect, it queried the scientific knowledge and culturaltradition, accused the human alienation, rethought the existence form of individuallife. We also indicated its multielement manifestation in female writing and empirementality. Finally, we discuss the influence of British gothic novel from differentangles and dimensions. Its influence was not only in the gothic literary creation ofEurope, America, China, etc in the aspect of comparative literature, but also in thefields such as modern filmdom and rock music. Considered the value and influence ofBritish gothic novel in some fields other than literature, we can get a comprehensiveand objective result using the method of comparison.According to the above layers of depth discussion, this article is divided intothree main parts: An overview of the "Gothic", Value of the British gothic novel, Theinfluence of British gothic novel. Wherein the second and third part is the key, themain innovation is also reflected in the third part of this thesis.