This unit introduces the Gothic as both an historical and generic term, opening up debates about what constitutes a Gothic text, by looking at some of the major historical landmarks in Gothic literature, and their relations to questions of history, politics, gender, and aesthetics, as well as critical studies into psychology, sexuality, and emergent Gothic ideas such as the uncanny and the double. The materials studied range from the early modern period, through the traditionally accepted period of historical Gothic (1760-1830) to the end of the nineteenth century.
Core texts studied include: Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764), Matthew Lewis, The Monk (1796), Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) and Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897).
The unit is taught by a team of fully research-active staff from the English department whose research profiles can be viewed at www.hssr.mmu.ac.uk/centre-of-research-in-english.
This course is worth an optional 20 credits at Master’s level and costs £500. For further details, contact Dr Adam Rounce: +44 (0) 161 247 3783; a.ro...@mmu.ac.uk. To apply, contact James Draper: +44 (0) 161 247 1787; j.dr...@mmu.ac.uk.