English Major in Writing Courses, Undergraduate Programs at Northwestern University School of Professional Studies - Northwestern School of Professional Studies

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English literature courses carry humanities credit. 

ENGLISH 313-CN : Studies in Fiction: Gothic Fiction

Description

Gothic stories of mystery, suspense, and horror have captured the imaginations of readers for centuries, but how do these texts work their magic? In this course, we will trace the Gothic novel from its earliest manifestation in the 18th century—filled with eerie castles, dangerous villains, damsels in distress, and an air of the supernatural—through its influence on popular Romantic and sensationalist fiction in the 19th. Together, we will explore the following questions: how do we define the Gothic as a genre? What can close reading tell us about how Gothic fiction works on its readers? What questions and anxieties, both literary and cultural, do the Gothic novel expose? And how do the conventions of the 18th century Gothic tradition continue to influence popular culture?

Readings may include selections from Ann Radcliff’s Romance of the Forest, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as well as range of Gothic poetry, short stories, and film.