SCREENING THE GOTHIC: PARODY OF THE GOTHIC GENRE IN TIM BURTON’S DARK SHADOWS

Abstract

Since the first Gothic work, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, was published in 1764, the Gothic genre has constantly been changing and evolving. One of its main purposes has always been social criticism, and therefore Gothic literature had to change together with the society. In the 20th and especially in the 21st century with the arrival of new technologies, Gothic moved from the paper to the screen. Film and television offered a whole new range of possibilities for the postmodern authors of Gothic works to express themselves. One such artist is certainly the American director Tim Burton who is famous for his dark comedies that are almost exclusively crammed with Gothic elements. In this paper, the author shows how, in his movie Dark Shadows from 2012, Tim Burton used parody as a tool to make an on-screen pastiche of Gothic elements packed in a dark comedy for the true lovers of the Gothic genre, creating a genuine example of the postmodern Gothic.