Final answer:
The key element NOT found in Gothic literature is 'An ancestral curse that complicates the lives of modern-day characters.' Gothic literature typically involves supernatural elements, a gloomy atmosphere, and symbolic revelations, rather than modern-day complications from ancestral curses.
Step-by-step explanation:
The key element NOT found in Gothic literature is 'An ancestral curse that complicates the lives of modern-day characters.' While Gothic literature can include ancestral curses, these curses do not typically extend to complicate the lives of characters in a modern-day setting in classic Gothic novels. Gothic literature often features elements such as symbolic revelations about human behavior, a sense that something is not quite right, and a gloomy atmosphere with suspense and tension. It draws on supernatural and dream-like events in settings like haunted castles with ghosts and vampires. Examples of this genre are works by authors like Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelley, with titles such as Frankenstein. The Southern Gothic, a sub-genre, also eschews modern settings in favor of delving into the grotesque and decay amidst Southern society.