Gothic revivals
S Tweg
12 points
* 2 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
Objectives Students successfully completing this subject should have developed sufficient theoretical perspectives and critical skills to be able to analyse a range of Gothic-inflected popular fictions; recognise historical developments in the genre and; grasp the potentially subversive nature of the form as a critique of conventionally accepted Western social myths.
Synopsis This subject is a specialist genre study of gothic fictions with particular emphasis on late twentieth century examples. A number of prose fictions and film adaptations will be discussed, together with a range of critical and theoretical approaches to this very popular and disturbing material. Gothic fictions allow us `to be frightened in a safe place' from which we can examine extraordinary scenarios and `unimaginable' beings. Recent theoretical writing on popular literature and film has opened up the discussion considerably. Dominant gothic elements in the various story forms on the reading list (eg a horror story, vampire stories, science fiction, a ghost story, a psychological thriller or crime story) invite potentially subversive readings of conventionally accepted ideas about conscious reality and social norms. The material on this subject opens up discussion on the nature of beliefs about the modern family, desire, repression, gender and sexuality, about distinctions between fantasy or dreams and reality, between madness and sanity, and more.
Assessment Two seminar presentations with written papers (2000 words
each): 25% each
* one essay (5000 words) or original piece of Gothic
fiction (5000 words): 50%
Prescribed texts
Bloch R Psycho+
Bradbury R Something wicked this way comes +
Du Maurier D Don't look now +
Jacobs W W The monkey's paw
James H The turn of the screw +
King S The tommyknockers or Salem's lot
Poe E A The pit and the pendulum +
Rendell R A demon in my view
Rice A Interview with a vampire
Le Fanu S Carmilla *
Lee T Bite me not or fleur de fur *
McKee Charnas S Unicorn tapestry *
Tyron T The other +
Wilde O The Picture of Dorian Gray+
* in The Penguin book of vampire stories.
+ Students will be expected to view available film adaptations of these gothic fictions.
Preliminary reading
Grixiti J Terrors of uncertainty: The cultural contexts of horror fiction 1989
Punter D The literature of terror 1980 (Chapter 15 `Towards a theory of the gothic')
Williams A Art of darkness. A poetics of gothic 1995
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