Biography

A shape of a house, arising from the mist. A figure, seen from the corner of the eye. A deep and growing sense of doom and danger. Gothic literature has been, since the eighteenth century, not only a genre of terror and place but one associated with underrepresented authors and popular culture. It is not a genre that has been left in the past, however; rather, it is one that has thrived through the nineteenth, twentieth, and now twenty-first centuries as it has spread and changed with places and times. We will be exploring some of the roots of traditional gothic literature as a way in which to examine how contemporary authors have made the genre their own through expanding critiques from evil individuals to the systems that allow such evil to flourish. Readings may include texts from writers such as Bronte, Faulkner, Moreno-Garcia, and Huang.

Reading is the basis of our work together; writing, discussion, and oral commentary are the mediums through which you will explore your ideas about the course material. You will be writing both in-class and processed analytical pieces, leading discussions, offering oral analyses of texts, and considering the creative elements that underpin the Gothic.