610005 PS American Literature: Haunted Fictions: The American Gothic Literary Tradition

summer semester 2020 | Last update: 05.05.2020 Place course on memo list
610005
PS American Literature: Haunted Fictions: The American Gothic Literary Tradition
PS 2
2,5
weekly
each semester
English

To identify recurring themes and tropes within American Gothic literature and to place Gothic writing within the context of conflicts in American history and society.

The Gothic novel dates back to the British writer Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), and Gothic fiction appears on the American literary scene from the end of the eighteenth century. The literary critic Leslie Fiedler claimed that “Until the gothic had been discovered, the serious American novel could not begin; and as long as that novel lasts, the gothic cannot die” (Love and Death in the American Novel, p. 143). The American literary tradition has, indeed, consistently engaged with Gothic themes and concerns, such as the return of the past, the aesthetics of fear, landscapes of darkness and mystery, and the blurring of the line between fantasy and reality. While Gothic writing has produced a number of familiar tropes and clichés—ghosts, crumbling castles, and monsters—what makes these American works “Gothic” is their shared fascination with the breaking of taboos and forbidden desires. The genre has been used to explore the legacy of different chapters in American history, such as the spiritual conflicts of the Puritan era and the horrors of slavery.

 

This seminar will analyze and contextualize American Gothic fiction by American writers from the mid-nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. We will read works by a diverse range of authors, including Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Henry James, William Faulkner, Shirley Jackson, Toni Morrison, and Stephen King. We will study how these writers used and adapted Gothic tropes and themes, and we will consider the different ways these authors used the Gothic to express anxieties within American society.

Lecture inputs, weekly viewings/readings, student presentations, group discussions.

Active class participation, student presentations, writing assignments and/or term paper.

As far as possible, course materials and selected primary and secondary sources will be posted on OLAT.

 

Prerequisite for the Bachelor Program (612): positive completion of compulsory module 10, for BA Lehramt (457): positive completion of compulsory module 13

04.03.2020
Group 0
Date Time Location
Wed 2020-03-04
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-03-11
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-03-18
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-03-25
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-04-01
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-04-22
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-04-29
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-05-06
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-05-13
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-05-20
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-05-27
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-06-03
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-06-10
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-06-17
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Wed 2020-06-24
15.30 - 17.00 40130 40130 Barrier-free