English 149-2 - Winter, 2012

Topics in Literature

Topic: American Gothic: Wonder, Horror, and the Fantastic in American Literatures

Class Information

Instructor: Lauro, Sarah
CRN: 53860
Time: MWF 2:10-3:00
Location: 101 Olson

Description

This course will trace the American response to the European Gothic movement, and then consider various other movements in American literature that have been called, or might be associated with the “Gothic.” Using Todorov’s descriptions of the “Fantastic” as a resource, we will look at novels, short fiction, poetry, and other texts of the 18th and 19th centuries. We will consider first those iconic nineteenth century texts that might be claimed as part of an American Gothic, for example Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland, and short stories by Poe, Hawthorne, and others. Moving into the twentieth century, we will expand our definition of the Gothic, and consider why a movement like the “Southern Gothic” borrows this name. We will also explore texts that have been grouped under the headings of the “Postcolonial Gothic” and the “Suburban Gothic.” Along the way, we will look at the way pulp fiction, science fiction, and contemporary horror both develop and pay homage to the genre. Our main goal for this course will be to determine the Gothic's relationship to the fantastic, and assess whether or not this is an appropriate term to apply to American literature. In addition to the texts listed below, which will be available at the bookstore, a reader will include shorts texts by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Washington Irving, Jack London, HP Lovecraft, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pauline Melville, Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, Joyce Carol Oates, and others; films and other media will be made available to students separately.

Grading

Attendance and Participation: 10%
Quizzes and Short Writing Assignments: 20%
Short Paper: 20%
Long Paper: 30%
Final Exam: 20%

Texts

The Fantastic, Tzvetan Todorov.
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Zombie, Joyce Carol Oates
The Stepford Wives, Ira Levin
The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
Pedro Peramo, Juan Rulfo
The Great Short Works of Herman Melville,
Weiland, or The Transformation
The Complete Short Story Collection, Edgar Allen Poe