Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines literary “classics”, variously defined, apprehending them both on their own terms and within larger critical conversations. May incorporate the comparative study of work in related artistic fields and engage relevant media trends. Includes attention to writing skills. Students with credit for ENGL 101W may not take this course for further credit. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

GOTHIC: From Literary Classics to Goth Subculture

This course introduces students to the study of "literary classics." What makes a work of literature a "classic"? Is a "value" of a literary work contained in its own textual performance? Or is it the product of social forces such as readers, the market, and literary critics? Are these evaluations immutable through time and space? Or can they be overturned by different "tastes" and "judgments"? We will approach these questions through the reading and analysis of one play, three novels, and three poems from the literary tradition--works which we will analyze both for their formal qualities and the powerful stories they tell, but also by paying attention to the critical issues they raise and the condition of production of their time.

All of our readings contain, either formally or thematically, gothic elements. A genre that is often branded with the ability to nest itself within the more "appetible" literary realism, gothic literature has revealed a potential for excess and disruption, making it particularly attractive to radical artists from socially conservative eras of the past but also our postmodern age: Remember punk and post-punk music? The texts we will read have challenged the social and cultural values of their own time through their stories: Shakespeare's early modern tale of witches, regicide, and madness: Emily Bronte's 19th century romance of demonic instincts and thwarted passion; Bram Stoker's portrayal of a vampire threatening the racial and gender boundaries of the British Empire; Jean Rhys's modernist recasting of a 19th-century tale of madness and rationality, sexual desire and colonial domination, on an island of the Caribbean; and Angela Carter's and Anne Hebert's explorations of imaginary ritual murder and corporeal subjection in the cultural context of mid- and late 20th century Quebec and Britain.

In our discussions, we will consider the intersections and common concerns of these texts, why they were received with enthusiasm or lukewarm approasal by their critics and, especially, their resonance with our contemporary culture of music, art, and cinema--from Nick Cave's murder ballads and Kate Bush's reinterpretation of Wuthering Heights to Henri Fuseli's paintings of Macbeth, as well as the many film adaptations of all four main texts. As such, we will reflect on the way in which gothic literary classics have migrated to popular culture or Goth subculture.

Assignments and in-class work will help students learn to think and write effectively about literature. The course includes in-class exercises on essay writing and a creative project of adaptation of one of the works studied in class. 

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COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

At the end of the course, students will be able to demonstrate their proficiency in the following activities:

1. Read and analyze literary texts to enhance comprehension and critical evaluation.

2. Place texts in their historical and cultural contexts.

3. Understand the way literature engages with the critical issues of its own time but also speaks to later generations of readers.

4. Analyze the way in which authors have addressed the constraints of production and reception of literary texts and the problematic of canon (and anti-canon) formation.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: