Engl 150P The American Gothic

This course explores American works written in the Gothic mode. In novels, captivity narratives, short stories, and poetry, we will investigate representations of terrifying, uncanny, and supernatural phenomena. As we trace the development of the Gothic mode in American literature, we will examine how narratives and poetic depictions of horror rehearse our individual and cultural fears about sexuality, race, violation, rebellion, madness, and death, and we will inquire into that thrill of macabre pleasure that attends the exploration of the darker side of life.

Pasted Graphic 1

Readings:

Charles Brockden Brown: Edgar Huntly
Edgar Allan Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories
Henry James: The Turn of the Screw
Shirley Jackson: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Joyce Carol Oates: American Gothic Tales

Assignment Schedule:

Mon Jan 28

Introduction: What is the American Gothic?

Hellfire and Damnation

Wed Jan 30

Michael Wigglesworth: The Day of Doom
Jonathan Edwards: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
Emily Dickinson: “A Pit—but Heaven over it”

The Haunted Frontier

Mon Feb 4

William Bradford: Excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation
Cotton Mather: “Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft”
Cotton Mather: Two Puritan Captivities as Told by Cotton Mather

Wed Feb 6 Charles Brockden Brown: Edgar Huntly (Chapters 1-7)
Mon Feb 11 Charles Brockden Brown: Edgar Huntly (Chapters 8-13)
Alan Lloyd Smith: “How to Read American Gothic” (Handout)
Wed Feb 13 Charles Brockden Brown: Edgar Huntly (Chapters 14-21)
Mon Feb 18 Charles Brockden Brown: Edgar Huntly (Chapters 22-27, Letters 1-3)

The Gothic Short Story

Wed Feb 20 Washington Irving: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (Oates pp. 19-44)
Mon Feb 25 Nathaniel Hawthorne “The Man of Adamant” (Oates pp. 45-51)
Young Goodman Brown” (Oates pp. 52-64)
Wed Feb 27 Nathaniel Hawthorne: “Ethan Brand” (Handout)
Mon Mar 3 Edgar Allan Poe: “The Fall of the House of Usher” (pp. 90-110)
“The Masque of the Red Death” (pp. 205-211)
“The Cask of Amontillado” (pp. 310-316)
Wed Mar 5 Edgar Allan Poe: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (pp. 141-176)
“Descent into the Maelstrom” (pp. 177-193)
“The Oval Portrait” (pp. 201-204)

Nineteenth-Century Gothic Poetry

Mon Mar 10 Edgar Allan Poe: Poems (pp. 22-43)
“Philosophy of Composition” (pp. 430-442)
Wed Mar 12 Emily Dickinson: “One need not be a Chamber—to be Haunted,”
“I like a look of Agony,” “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,”
“The only Ghost I ever saw,” “Tis so appalling—it exhilarates,”
“Twas like a Maelstrom,” “That after Horror—that ‘twas us,”
“Death is the supple Suitor,” “I know some lonely Houses” (Handout)
First Essay Due

The Gothic and Social Reform

Mon Mar 17 Frederick Douglass: Excerpts from Narrative of the Life (Handout)
Solomon Northup: “A Slave Auction Described by a Slave (Handout)
Harriet Jacobs: “The Trials of Girlhood” (Handout)
William Wells Brown: “Another Kidnapping” (Handout)
Wed Mar 19 Herman Melville: “The Tartarus of Maids” (Oates pp. 65-77)
Mon Mar 24 Midterm
Wed Mar 26 No Class
Mon Mar 31 Spring Break!
Wed Apr 2 Spring Break!

The Psychological Ghost Story

Mon Apr 7 Edith Wharton: “Afterward” (Oates pp. 129-156)
Julia Briggs: “The Ghost Story” (Handout)
Wed Apr 9 Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (Sections 1-5)
Mon Apr 14 Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (Sections 6-16)
Wed Apr 16 Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (Sections 17-24)
Mon Apr 21 Charlotte Perkins Gilman: “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Oates 87-102)

The Gothic in the Twentieth Century

Wed Apr 23 William Faulkner: “A Rose for Emily” (Oates pp. 182-190)
Mon Apr 28 Ray Bradbury: “The Veldt” (Oates 264-277)
Second Essay Due
Wed Apr 30 Shirley Jackson: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Chaps 1-3)
Mon May 5 Shirley Jackson: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Chaps 4-10)
Wed May 7 Anne Rice: “Freniere” (Oates 349-357)
William Hughes: “Fictional Vampires” (Handout)
Mon May 12 Paul Bowles: “Allal” (Oates 226-235)
Wed May 14 Conclusion
Fri May 23 Final Exam 10:15 am-12:15 pm