Urban Gothic

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Urban Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction that transposes traditional Gothic themes of horror, decay, and the uncanny into modern urban settings.

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Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf literary genre
subgenre of Gothic fiction
contrastsWith rural Gothic settings
derivesFrom traditional Gothic fiction
distinguishingFeature transposition of Gothic motifs from castles and rural estates to cityscapes
emergedFrom late 19th-century and 20th-century urbanization
employs Gothic tropes adapted to city life
exploresTheme class tension in cities
corruption and moral decay
fear of the modern city
poverty and marginalization
focusesOn psychological horror
social decay
the darker aspects of city life
urban alienation
hasCharacteristic decay
horror themes
the uncanny
influencedBy Gothic Revival
surface form: Victorian Gothic

industrialization
modern crime fiction
influences contemporary horror literature
urban horror films
language primarily English
medium film
graphic novels
prose fiction
television
narrativeFocus individuals confronting urban horrors
the city as a threatening or sentient presence
oftenFeatures labyrinthine cityscapes
liminal spaces such as subways and alleyways
monsters or supernatural entities in urban settings
serial killers or human monsters
relatedTo dark fantasy
horror fiction
urban fantasy
subgenreOf Gothic literature
surface form: Gothic fiction
typicalSetting contemporary cities
modern urban environments
usesMotif crime-ridden neighborhoods
ruined or decaying urban architecture
the uncanny within everyday city spaces
urban isolation
usesTone claustrophobia in crowded cities
dark and oppressive atmosphere
sense of dread

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Gothic literature hasSubgenre Urban Gothic