First-Year Research Seminar: Fear and the Gothic

Semester and Year	SP 2013
Course Number	FIRST-UG746
Section	001
Instructor	Bridget McFarland
Days	Mon,Wed
Time	2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement

Notes/Restrictions

Open to Gallatin first-year students only.

Description

Why do some stories scare us? This course seeks to define and examine fear by reading scary stories defined as gothic. The course begins with the birth of the "Gothic" novel in Great Britain and traces the genre's evolution during the revolutionary turmoil of the 1790s. In addition to reading the gothic as a response to a shifting political landscape, we consider the extent to which the gothic's ability to inspire fear and produce a sensory response relates to the goals of the Enlightenment. How does gothic literature test the limits of empiricism and question the authority of sensory experience? How and why do works of gothic literature succeed in creating fear? We read canonical works of the gothic, including drama, short stories, horror ballads,   and a satirical send-up of the genre .  Readings may include M.G. Lewis' The Monk  and Castle Spectre,  Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey,  Miles Peter Andrews' The Enchanted Castle, Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher,  Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow and selected ballads such as "The Children in the Wood," "Tam Lin," and "Sweet William's Ghost."

Course Type

First-Year Program: Research Seminars (FIRST-UG)