Jonathan Anderson introduced Dracula and Madame Bovary Book Totes to his first collection for Dior. Guillermo Del Toro, Emerald Fennel and Luc Besson reimagined Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights and Dracula in film. Another Jane Eyre adaptation has just been announced. The 2026 Fall/Winter catwalks drew on Gothic influences with capes, bold sleeves and velvets. It’s hard to miss the zeitgeist’s current love affair with 19th Century Gothic Literature.
It’s both telling, yet oddly foreseeable that we would return to these stories given their origin. What is it to be ‘gothic’? In its most literal sense, ‘gothic’ means to be counter cultural. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Gothic architecture referred to styles that deviated from the Greco/Roman classic that was mainstream at the time. This is also how Gothic literature took its name. Gothic literature was a departure from the works born from the Age of Enlightenment, challenging rationalism with superstition. These works were initially labelled ‘gothic’ pejoratively, before the word eventually evolved into a genre itself.
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Gothic literature, at its core, is an exploration of fear and a rejection of the norm. A creative manifestation of the deep anxieties of the time, these are works that delve into threats of the supernatural and the unexplainable; ghosts, monsters, crumbling castles, decay and dark expressions of mental illness. Undoubtedly, one of the most common themes is exploring sentient forces that evolve insidiously to eventually destroy us. It does all sound eerily familiar. And, when you start to sift through the context that conceived these tales, the parallels are clear.
Gothic literature, at its core, is an exploration of fear and a rejection of the norm.
The genre’s initial conception came in the years following the Seven Years’ War. The decades that followed were cataclysmic times of deep political unrest; the Napoleonic Wars, the French Revolution and the American Civil War. Eventually the Gothic literary canon rose to prominence against the backdrop of The Industrial Revolution; the death of the craftsperson and the birth of the production line.
The sub-genre, “the Female Gothic” was the product of a moment where women were more liberated than in the past, but still heavily shackled by the patriarchy. For example, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, while allowed to write and publish books, also lived in a time where women were not allowed to attend university or own property.
Ultimately, Gothic literature was the creative mouthpiece that gave a voice to the dread felt in that moment. Seemingly nonsensical political and social conflict inspiring abstract expressions of fear. This was the tangible manifestation of the uncertainty experienced by a generation facing death, war and rapid technological advancement that put many people out of work, and made others fear for the future.
200 years later, the pressures most of us face look different, but the stresses feel the same – political unrest, death, war and rapid technological advancement.
200 years later, the pressures most of us face look different, but the stresses feel the same
Over the last decade and half, many democracies have taken a hard right turn, electing political “strongmen”, engaging in war and eroding human rights. The daily news is absurd, and in a way that imitates parody. Quite literally. Some early episodes of The Simpsons have been labelled prophetic in the way that much of this satire is now very real news. Meanwhile, AI-images flood our chronically online world making it near impossible to tell fact from fiction.
When we learned about The Industrial Revolution in school, many of us did not expect to experience our very own version of it. Industrial machinery made artisan workers obsolete, and centuries later, the white collar worker is experiencing the same kind of reckoning. The rapid development of generative AI is facilitating the slow death of the STEM job. Once an opportunity-filled discipline, many white collar jobs in technical fields are evaporating before our eyes, replaced by dystopian robot creatures who can allegedly code, report and synthesise in the way that humans can.
When the dominant culture thrust upon us by the corporate and controlling political institutions feels so restrictive, hopeless and abusive, it makes sense that we would take emotional refuge in one of the first expressions of counter culture.
The rights of women are also being stripped back and threatened in countries across the globe. As we entered what was supposed to be a solidifying fourth wave of feminism, social progress paused and moved backwards instead.
When the dominant culture thrust upon us by the corporate and controlling political institutions feels so restrictive, hopeless and abusive, it makes sense that we would take emotional refuge in one of the first expressions of counter culture. In fact, there is an odd kind of kinship found in immersing yourself in the artistic catharsis of the past. The stories that helped us survive the past are reemerging in fashion, art and film to help us survive the present.
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When Mary Shelley created Frankenstein, her story of a sentient creation that comes back to destroy its maker, she wrote, “when falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?” Words that read almost as though the author had a crystal ball in front of her. The Picture of Dorian Gray is the tale of a person who goes to damaging and dangerous lengths to achieve beauty. Madame Bovary examines a woman dissatisfied with her own reality after comparing it to the luxury of others. She financially ruins herself in the pursuit of this fantasy. Yes it’s a love story, but more than that Wuthering Heights is an examination of how wealth and class are the most powerful predetermining factors of holistic success, and how people are shaped when they’re forced into the fringes of society.
“When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?”
When you peel back the layers of absurdity, the horror-hyperbole and the mysticism, these are simply tales of the human conditions, both a warning and advice. A way for us to cauterise our anxieties and push back against the dominant culture of this moment. As Stephen King once said, “We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.”
And, within these stories, beneath a paper-thin layer are cautionary tales. Perhaps more than any other genre, Gothic fiction is filled with allegories, meta narratives and lessons that are arguably more relevant now than they ever were before.
