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Module Content and Indicative Topics

This module will introduce the Gothic as an area of critical enquiry. Using an intermedial, transdisciplinary and transnational approach, it will explore the Gothic mode as a recurring discourse and aesthetic sensibility from the 18th century to the present day. Our investigations will map the development of gothic stylistics, structures and themes in a variety of genres, forms and media. Although the focus will be on comparative analyses of literary works, we will also examine other art forms and cultural products, such as film, music and televisual productions. Students will survey the cultural and political relevance of the mode and consider how gothic narratives have shaped popular culture. Students will be introduced to the leading authors and scholars in the field and will have the chance to research specific areas of gothic interest while developing a wider understanding of the mode in its various cultural manifestations.

This module will explore a representative sample of works that have shaped the gothic imagination and contemporary culture. Specifically, we will examine how the tropes of transgression and monstrosity are deployed, reworked and weaponised in key historical moments and how gothic works have persistently represented the shadowy underside of progress. In so doing, we will engage with the timely debates about otherness, marginalisation, feminism, disability and mental illness that these narratives bring forward.

Teaching Delivery

This module will comprise lectures and discussion seminars. The lectures will contextualise the set texts for each week and provide students with the theoretical tools to investigate them. Discussion seminars will be comparative in scope and offer students the opportunity to apply the acquired skills to that week’s case study. Our explorations will follow an intermedial approach, which will include looking across a range of materials, from essays to novels, poems, films, TV series and song lyrics. Over the duration of the module, students will be asked to read specific materials on their own time and watch selected films and music videos.

By the end of the module, you should be able to:

1. Analyse and discuss gothic literature and film in a historically, critically and aesthetically informed manner.

2. Demonstrate advanced skills and knowledge in reading classic and contemporary literary texts and related criticism.

3. Locate texts in their respective contexts and understand their artistic, literary and social implications and legacy.

4. Produce careful close readings of poetry, song lyrics and prose, and engage in detailed analysis of films.

5. Compare and contrast gothic novels and their film adaptations.

6. Understand key gothic texts through relevant critical discourses (e.g. feminism, cultural criticism).

7. Understand the Gothic as a tradition that engages with both ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture.

8. Identify the rich diversity of the mode and define what makes it resonate with readers through the centuries.

Recommended Reading

In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core texts. These can be found via the UCL Library:

Core readings:

• Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca [1938] (Virago, 2003).

• Edgar Allan Poe, ‘Annabel Lee’, 1849.

• Emilie Autumn, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls [2008] (Asylum Emporium, 2017).

• Mary Shelley, ‘On Ghosts’ [1824], in E. J. Clery and Robert Miles (eds), Gothic Documents: A Sourcebook 1700-1820 (Manchester University Press, 2000).

• Robert Browning, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’, 1836.

Selected further reading:

David Punter, ed., A New Companion to the Gothic (John Wiley & Sons, 2012).

Deborah Lutz, The Dangerous Lover: Gothic Villains, Byronism, and the Nineteenth-Century Seduction Narrative (The Ohio State UP, 2006).

Fred Botting, The Gothic (Routledge, 1996).

Fred Botting and Dale Townshend, Gothic: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies (Routledge, 2004).

Glennis Byron and Dale Townshend, eds, The Gothic World (Routledge, 2014).

Maria Beville, Gothic-postmodernism: Voicing the Terrors of Postmodernity (Rodopi, 2009).