Publications and Research
Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
Spring 2021
Abstract
Gothic fiction is a genre of literature that tells a story of terror or suspense, and does this by employing dark scenery, eerie narrative devices, and atmospheres of gloom and mystery. It is a genre that has been ever-evolving since its first true emergence in the eighteenth century, and a prime example of this evolution is the modern Harry Potter book series by J. K. Rowling which employs gothic elements into its otherwise predominantly fantasy-fiction genre. For the purpose of this paper, the focus lies on the third installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which incorporates gothic elements in more noticeable ways than the other books within the series. Similar to the other Harry Potter books, Prisoner of Azkaban has gothic elements interwoven throughout the story but cannot be categorized as completely gothic because of its greater affinity to the fantasy-fiction genre. According to the ‘Introduction of The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic’ by Clive Bloom, “the Gothic is above all a hybrid mode: it often appears in collaboration with other literary forms, modes, and genres” and it is by this reasoning that Prisoner of Azkaban can be described as gothic due to the many gothic elements interwoven into the story (Bloom 8).
