Traces of the Literary Gothic in the Characters of Els sots feréstecs, by Raimon Casellas

Abstract

This article aims to analyse in a detailed and in-depth manner the characters of Els sots feréstecs (1901), by Raimon Casellas, as an example of the reflection of European and American Gothic literature within Catalan Modernism. On the basis of this analysis, the study seeks to establish links between the novel’s characters and various characteristic archetypes of the Gothic genre, as well as with grotesque elements present in artistic creations from nineteenth- and twentieth-century horror literature and in certain later manifestations of popular cinema. The article focuses on observing the points of connection between different literary and cinematic works in order to identify and highlight the Gothic and terrifying elements contained in Casellas’s novel, especially through the construction of the characters and their moral, physical and psychological dynamics. In this way, the characters become a key element for understanding the oppressive atmosphere, grotesque distortion and pervasive presence of evil that run throughout the work. The final objective of the article is to determine to what extent it is appropriate to consider Els sots feréstecs, often regarded as the first novel of Catalan Modernism, as a Gothic novel. In this regard, the study will show that the links connecting Casellas’s work with the Gothic tradition, inherited from European Romanticism of the 18th and 19th centuries, are evident and diverse, making it possible to speak of a hypothetical Catalan literary Gothic.