Beyond the House of Usher: American Gothic Today 4219-SC028
In this course we will look at contemporary Gothic texts by H.P. Lovecraft, Cormac McCarthy, Joyce Carol Oates, Poppy Z. Brite, Livia Llewellyn, Thomas Ligotti, Clive Barker, Nalo Hopkinson, and Mat Johnson (among others) in order to discuss how the past invades and destabilizes the present. Utilizing classic literary criticism, poststructuralist theories of gender, class and race, as well as new materialist accounts of subjectivity and corporeality, we will look at how the interconnected systems of oppression, disenfranchisement and exclusion are brought to light via selected Gothic tropes and formulas. Lastly, we will examine how modern-day Gothic production overlaps with other contemporary genre fictions such as the New Weird, dark fantasy, and afrofuturism.
Main topics:
1. Genre theory, concepts, and history
2. Southern Gothic revisited
3. Everyday Gothic and the Horror Boom of the 70s and 80
4. Responses to mainstream
5. Gothic Otherness
6. Queer Gothic
7. Whiteness Deconstructed
8. Postcolonial Gothic
9. Old Weird and New Weird
10. Beyond Gothic: New authors, new genres
Type of course
Mode
Learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE
Upon completing this course a student:
- defines contemporary Gothic production in American culture
- recognizes examples of Gothic imagery and their complex functions in various literary texts
- explains dependencies between various cultural paradigms, social norms, and cultural production
SKILLS
Upon completing this course a student:
- is able to critically apply concepts concerning the Gothic such as the uncanny, the grotesque, the abject
- is able to critically apply theories and concepts concerning literary theory and chosen poststructuralist theories
- can define and describe different types of plot mechanisms, characterisation, stylistic devices, generic formulas commonly employed in Gothic and horror
COMPETENCES
Upon completing this course a student:
- understands the importance of the Gothic discourse for contemporary American culture and literature
- is aware of the importance of the intersectional approach in critical analyses of gender, sexuality, class and race.
- is able to plan and undertake research steps order to prepare an essay based on an analysis of a chosen literary work
Assessment criteria
Special emphasis is placed on students' active participation, which means that students are expected to participate in the discussions and groupwork during the classes. Students should read the assigned texts, watch the assigned movies and engage with other primary source materials.
Active class participation: 30%
Final essay/final project: 30%
Final test: 20%
Four responses: 20%
Students need 60% to pass the course.
Bibliography
Primary literature
Anthologies:
Clive Barker, Books of Blood 1-6 (1984-1985)
Poppy Z. Brite (ed.), Love In Vain I-II (1994-1997)
Ellen Datlow (editor), Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror (2010)
Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel (eds.), Bending the Landscape: Original Gay and Lesbian Writing. Horror (2001)
Nancy Holder and Nancy Kilpatrick (eds.), Outsiders (2005)
Sheree R. Thomas (ed.), Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (2001)
Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (editors), The New Weird Anthology (2008)
Novels:
Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls (1992)
Mat Johnson, Pym (2011)
Caitlín R. Kiernan, The Red Tree (2010)
Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838)
Secondary literature
Bloom, Clive. “Horror Fiction: In Search of a Definition.” In A Companion to the Gothic, 211-223. Edited by David Punter. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2001.
Crow, Charles L. American Gothic. University of Wales Press, 2009.
Freud, Sigmund. “The ‘Uncanny’.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. XVII. Ed. James Strachey. London: Hogarth Press, 1958.
Gelder, Ken, editor. The Horror Reader. 2000. Routledge, 2002.
Gordon, Joan, and Veronica Hollinger, editors. Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
Halberstam, Judith. Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. Duke Universit Press, 1995.
Hogle, Jerrold E. The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Joshi, S.T. The Evolution of the Weird Tale. Hippocampus Press, 2004.
Latham, Rob. Consuming Youth: Vampires, Cyborgs, and the Culture of Consumption. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Lloyd-Smith, Allan. American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction. A&C Black, 2004.
Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Translated by Leon S. Roudiez. Columbia University Press, 1992.
Masschelein, Anneleen. The Unconcept: The Freudian Uncanny in Late-Twentieth-Century Theory. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011.
Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Harvard University Press, 1992
Norman, Brian. Dead Women Talking: Figures of Injustice in American Literature. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.
Palmer, Paulina. The Queer Uncanny: New Perspectives on the Gothic. Gothic Literary Studies. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2012.
Punter, David, ed. A Companion to the Gothic. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2001.
Simmons, David (ed.) New Critical Essays on H.P.Lovecraft. 2013.
Spooner, Catherine. Contemporary Gothic. Reaktion Books, 2006.
Wallace, Diana, and Andrew Smith, eds. The Female Gothic: New Directions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Wisker, Gina. Horror Fiction: An Introduction. A&C Black, 2005.