ENGL 485-01, Senior Seminar: American Gothic, Spring 2010

Abstract

While America was conceived as a land of hope, light, and liberty, it has its dark side of persecution, brutality, and moral decay. From the horrors of Indian massacre to the Salem Witch Trials to the institution of slavery and beyond, America has all too often fallen short of its ideals. America's troubled past has long furnished writers with material for an extreme literature known as American Gothic, a genre that pulls back the veneer of wholesome society to expose the hypocrisy, corruption, and secrets beneath. Such writing is distinguished from the Gothic literature of Europe, where the genre originates. Though populated by haunted houses and sorrowful landscapes, American Gothic substitutes the mysterious castles and cathedrals, the malevolent aristocrats and lecherous monks of European Gothic with its own cultural phenomena, giving voice to its own nightmares--nightmares that disrupt, mock, and ghost around the American dream. This course offers an intensive study of some of the finest literature in the American Gothic tradition. Over the semester, we will explore what is distinctively "American" about this genre, absorb its many conventions, and appreciate the Gothic, which has been disparaged as empty and escapist, as a mode of social criticism. The first part of the course will expose you to a variety of literary texts and important critical works within the field of American Gothic studies. In the latter part, you will develop research projects focused on a particular text within the American Gothic tradition.