关键词: 《最后的莫希干人》, 哥特元素, 哥特背景, 美国荒野, 恐惧

Abstract: James Fenimore Cooper's masterpiece The Last of the Mohicans is generally believed to be a frontier romance or historical legend. However, the novel is abundant in gothic traces and can be read as a gothic novel to some extent. This paper tries to reveal its gothic features from the analyses of several characters and important settings and finds that the caves and graveyards are Americanized gothic settings and the horror brought by Indians is no less than the horror brought by demons and ghosts in traditional gothic novels. The insecurity and uncertainties White characters felt in a strange environment are projected into the setting to create deep horror. Cooper has integrated the gothic elements with American experience and wilderness to realize his domestication of the Gothic. The different gothic writing has great significance on Cooper's writing career and American literature.

Key words: The Last of the Mohicans, Gothic elements, Gothic setting, American wilderness, horror