Many of the motifs and outfit ideas of the black scene come from dark literature in particular. Song lyrics, band names, mystical-sounding nicknames, jewellery images and tattoo motifs in the scene also have their origins in books, poems or stories.
Grave poetry
In the English pre-Romantic period, there was a literary trend in which stories took place mainly in graveyards, crypts or at tombs. In keeping with the settings, the stories were about death and transience, loneliness and melancholy. Some authors of this genre even put their stories down on paper in cemeteries or ossuaries.
The Graveyard Poets included Thomas Gray, Edward Young and Thomas Chatterton, for example. The authors of the Gothic novels were also inspired by graveyard poetry.
Gothic literature
Dark, melancholy, romantic and creepy: the Gothic novels, which began their triumphal march from the 18th century, primarily in Great Britain, are still decisive for the image of Gothics today. It all began with the "Castle of Otranto", which Horace Walpone penned. Famous successors were Bram Stoker's Dracula or the novella Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu. H.P. Lovecraft also became famous for his horror stories.
Horror literature
In horror literature, science fiction, violence and perversion took centre stage alongside the scary component. Monsters, the undead, demons, diabolical possession, murder and torture alternated. It was about delusion and fear, irrationality, physical pain and destruction. Inner hell, horror and terror reigned in the stories. A famous work of early horror literature is Frankenstein.