This chapter aims at drawing a thematic and formal outline of the
eighteenth-century Gothic novel (focussing mainly on Walpole’s The Castle of
Otranto) and its reception on the current American Gothic, led by Stephen King. To
do this, we start from the assumption that there are several constant parameters in
the evolution of the Gothic genre, namely: the limits of rationality and passions, the
family ties, the settings, the claustrophobic atmosphere, etc. Due to King’s enormous
literary production, one of his most relevant works has been chosen: The Shining, in
order to carry out a comparative analysis underlining the reception, the evolution and
the interferences of elements from the beginnings of the Gothic literature.