The Gothic Child

"The fascination with dark and deathly threatening spaces, with looming towers and bloody deeds, is now accepted as characteristic of contemporary fantasy and fantastic fictions for children and adolescents. Although this fascination dates back to the gothic genre of the mid-18th century, at that time, the gothic genre was not regarded as suitable for children or young persons in general. However, many young authors' first literary attempts were linked to the gothic genre, and child characters were employed in many of their novels, thereby transforming the gothic into a domain with a…