THE DARK SIDE
Gothic literature first appeared in the late 18th century and became one of the first literary genres to inspire broad popular enthusiasm. The words Goth and Gothic describe the Germanic tribes (e.g., Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths) which sacked Rome and also ravaged the rest of Europe in the third, fourth, and fifth centuries. By the eighteenth century in England, Gothic had become synonymous with the Middle Ages, a period which was in disfavour because it was perceived as chaotic, unenlightened, and superstitious.
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