FF:AJ25044 North American Gothic - Course Information

AJ25044 North American Gothic

Extent and Intensity

0/2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus 3 credits for an exam). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).

Teacher(s)

Bonita Rhoads (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts

Timetable

each odd Thursday 14:10–15:45 K12 nerezervovat

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

there are 8 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display

Course objectives

This course explores the Gothic tradition in American and Canadian fiction. Why is it that the Gothic’s excessive motifs—haunted houses, doppelgangers, tyrannical fathers, homicidal mothers, sexual transgression, supernatural beings—appear so crucial to the cultural unconscious of North America? Because Gothic tales portray horrific and violent forces erupting into ordinary life, they evoke an array of social misgivings regarding the evils of territorial conquest and race discrimination, the inadequacy of the bourgeois family and conventional gender identity, the menace of technology and market capitalism, and the failures of “New World” political utopianism. At the same time, the Gothic is one the most flexible genres for social criticism, giving voice to 200 years of cultural outsiders and misfits, among them Charles Brockden Brown’s religious fanatics, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s guilty puritans, the feminist heroines of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Margaret Atwood, the African-American survivors of slavery portrayed by Toni Morrison and the cyber-space have-nots of William Gibson. In order to analyze the Gothic plot’s enduring association with the national narratives of North Americans, we will also consult cultural criticism throughout the term as well as aesthetic and psychological theories that pertain to the Gothic (Burke on sublimity, Freud on the uncanny, and Kristeva’s theory of abjection).

Syllabus

• 1) Introduction: 18th Century Origins of the Gothic Genre / Burke’s Theory of Sublimity / Revolution-Era Gothic / Gothic Revival in Architecture / Early North American Gothic Wieland – Charles Brockden Brown, 1798 Wacousta – John Richardson, 1832 *“What is American Gothic?,” “How to read American Gothic,” “Major themes in American Gothic,” American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction – Allan Lloyd-Smith *“Dark Journeys and Gothic Travels,” Gothic Canada: Reading the Spectre of a National Literature – Justin Edwards 2) “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “William Wilson,” “The Oval Portrait,” “The Black Cat” –Edgar Allan Poe & “The Birthmark,” “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Minister’s Black Veil” – Nathaniel Hawthorne *“Slavery and the Gothic Horror of Poe’s ‘The Black Cat,’” American Gothic: New Interventions in a National Narrative – Lesley Ginsberg *“White Terror, Black Dreams: Gothic Constructions of Race in the Nineteenth Century,” The Gothic Other: Racial and Social Constructions in the Literary Imagination – Eugenia DeLamotte * “The Uncanny” – Sigmund Freud *“Approaching Abjection,” Powers of Horror – Julia Kristeva No course meeting—reading response 1 due on-line 3) Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Vol. 2, Chap XXVIII-end of the novel) – Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852 * “Gothic Imagination and Social Reform: The Haunted Houses of Lyman Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe” – Karen Haltunnen *“Terminate or Liquidate? Poe, Sensationalism, and the Sentimental Tradition” – Jonathan Elmer *“Revivification and Utopian Time: Poe Versus Stowe” – Eva Cherniavsky 4) Roughing it in the Bush – Susanna Moodie, 1852 The Journals of Susanna Moodie (3 selected poems) – Margaret Atwood, 1970 * “Niagara’s Abyss or Locating the Gothic Sublime,” Gothic Canada: Reading the Spectre of a National Literature – Justin Edwards No course meeting—reading response 2 due on-line 5) “The Yellow Wallpaper” – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1891 “The Jolly Corner” – Henry James, 1903-1908 “The Eyes” – Edith Wharton , 1926-37 “Gilman's Arabesque Wallpaper” – Marty Roth “Gothic Architectonics: The Poetics and Politics of Gothic Space” – Carol Margaret Davison “The Girl in the Library: Edith Wharton’s ‘The Eyes’ and American Gothic Traditions,” Spectral America: Phantoms and the National Imagination – Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock 6) Absalom, Absalom! – William Faulkner, 1936 *“Beyond Silence and Realism: Trauma and the Function of Ghosts in Absalom, Absalom! and Beloved” – Peter Ramos *“Black Feminism and the Canon: Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and Morrison's Beloved as Gothic Romances” – Philip Goldstein No course meeting—reading response 3 due on-line 7) Lady Oracle – Margaret Atwood, 1976 *“Exceeding even Gothic Texture,” Gothic Forms of Feminine Fictions – Susanne Becker *”Canadian Gothic,” The Routledge Companion to the Gothic – Coral Ann Howells *“The Gothic as a Counter-Discursive Strategy in Margaret Atwood’s and Kate Grenville’s Fiction,” Peripheral Fear: Transformations of the Gothic. . . . – Gerry Turcotte 8) Neuromancer – William Gibson, 1984 *“Postmodernism/Gothicism” – Allan Lloyd Smith *“Beyond the Textual Body,” Gothic Canada: Reading the Spectre of a National Literature – Justin Edwards *Intro + Chapter 1, Gothic Motifs in the Fiction of William Gibson – Tatiani G. Rapatzikou No course meeting—reading response 4 due on-line 9) Beloved – Toni Morrison, 1987 * “Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural in Beloved” – Pamela E. Barnett * “The Soul Has Bandaged Moments": Reading the African American Gothic in Wright's "Big Boy Leaves Home," Morrison's Beloved and Gomez's "Gilda” – Cedric Gael Bryant * “The Politics of Genre in Beloved” – Madhu Dubey 10) American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis, 1991 *Introduction to Bret Easton Ellis – Naomi Mandel * “Violence, Ethics, and the Rhetoric of Decorum in American Psycho” – Michael P. Clark *American Psycho, Hamlet, and Existential Psychosis – Alex E. Blazer * “'The Soul of this Man is His Clothes': Violence and Fashion in American Psycho” – Elana Gomel *“Parodied to Death: The Postmodern Gothic of American Psycho” – Charles J. Rzepka No course meeting—reading response 5 due on-line 11) Anil’s Ghost – Michael Ondaatje, 2000 * “Unearthing Trauma, Unburying the Dead,” Gothic Canada: Reading the Spectre of a National Literature – Justin Edwards

Literature

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Vol. 2, Chap XXVIII-end of the novel) – Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852
• Anil's Ghost, Michael Ondaatje, 978-0375724374
• "The Fall of the House of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe, 978-0451530318
• "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne, 978-0199555154
• American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis, 978-0679735779
• Roughing it in the Bush, Susanna Moodie, 978-0771034923
• Beloved, Toni Morrison, 978-0307264886
• Neuromancer, William Gibson, 978-0441012039
• "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 978-1613821558

Assessment methods

Assessment: Regular attendance and participation in discussion 10%. 4 brief on-line reading responses (worth 5% each for 20% of your final grade), which you will submit to the class site on 4 out of the 5 weeks when we have no class meeting. Final Essay 70%. Attendance is important since we have only 6 class meetings. For each class meeting, you should be prepared to discuss the reading. On-line reading responses should be kept to a couple of thoughtful paragraphs; please point out issues and raises questions in relation to the reading or outline connections between the critical reading and the literature. Final essays should be 12-15 pages double-spaced in MLA format.

Language of instruction

English

Further Comments

Study Materials
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.

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