This study explores the development of the Gothic novel in English literature from a stylistic and cognitive-linguistic perspective. It examines the structure of Gothic narrative discourse and its expressive strategies, highlighting the pivotal role of cognitive metaphor in shaping themes of horror, mystery, and existential anxiety. Drawing on the philosophy of language, the study reveals how Gothic language encodes and reproduces cultural and psychological constructs that reflect the self's confrontation with the irrational and the unknown. Through critical readings of seminal Gothic texts, the study traces the dynamic interplay between language and aesthetic experience, demonstrating how Gothic fiction reflects evolving artistic, social, and intellectual paradigms. It discusses how early Gothic narratives, characterized by medieval settings and dark, enclosed spaces, responded to their social and political environments, particularly the tensions of modernity and class transformation. In later developments, the Gothic style deepened its philosophical and psychological concerns, engaging with notions of creation, morality, madness, and the limits of humanity. The study concludes that the Gothic novel constantly reinvents itself, maintaining its literary vitality and cultural significance through continuous adaptation to new contexts. This capacity for transformation has allowed the Gothic style to remain a resonant form of artistic expression, transcending the boundaries between reason and chaos, reality and imagination, thus ensuring its enduring presence and importance in contemporary literary discourse.
Ghada Fayez Refaat Abu Enein (Mon,) studied this question.