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Crosslistings: HUM 116 |
Ghosts and graveyards; witches and werewolves; crumbling castles, cobwebbed crypts, and bloody chambers--"Things That Go Bump in the Night." We are all familiar with the iconography of Gothic fiction and with the
thrills and chills produced by its
storylines. But how familiar are we with the reasons why we seek Gothic satisfactions, and why we discover them so predictably? How well do we understand the psychological, social, and political motives that drive
Gothic image and narrative? To develop
this understanding, we return to a primary source, the emergence of the Gothic genre in European culture during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. We focus primarily, but not exclusively, on English society, where
the Gothic emerged as a "far side"
version of Romanticism and became a means of navigating social, economic, and political revolution. We then investigate the translation of the Gothic to American culture, beginning in the mid 19th century under the
shadows of Puritanism and witch trials,
gender rebellions, and racial divisions of the Civil War.
Among the questions we ask: How valid is the proposed distinction between "terror gothic" and "horror gothic"? Does this generic distinction, if valid at
all, correspond to the distinction
between feminine and masculine genders? Does Gothic fantasy support or censor forbidden sexualities and crossed genders? How do Gothic spaces and architectures represent the social, political, and economic concerns of
an era? Most fundamentally, if Go
thic fictions are fantasies of transgression, are they progressive or regressive fantasies and how can we tell?
Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-19-2002
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459