|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Description: This course surveys 20th century fiction and film that has brought a neo-Gothic sensibility--a perspective colored by the grotesque, the horrific, and the magical--to bear on the modern world. Far from becoming a literary backwater in an era too rational and streamlined for its excesses, the Gothic has retained its potency as a form peculiarly suited to grasping the extremeties of experience characteristic of our age. This tradition has provided a dark lens through which to view, often in distorted or allegorical forms, the major social and cultural developments of the century: its rampant bloodshed, its out-of-control technology, and its abiding sense of personal alienation. Following Freud, the Gothic has functioned as a literary mechanism for the "return of the repressed," anatomizing the pathologies lurking beneath the veneer of civilized modernity. Indeed, its classic tropes--the ghostly revenant, the atavistic reversion, the surrender to madness--openly figure a sane surface world powerfully troubled by irrepressible, archaic depths.
Requirements and Assignments: The first requirement is preparation and attendance; you must be here for every class meeting with the day's reading completed. You must also attend the weekly film screenings, which are mandatory. Although I will not keep an official roll, you should know that the quizzes, the mid-term exam, and the final will test information presented in lectures as well as in the various texts (literary, filmic) on the syllabus, so missing classes will negatively impact your grades on these assignments.
The required writing consists of a series of quizzes, two short (5-6 page) papers, an in-class mid-term examination, and a final. The quizzes, of which there will be roughly twenty over the course of the semester, are designed to test your reading/viewing of the texts and your diligence in attending to the lectures. The format will be 3-4 short-answer, fact-based questions. If you routinely attend class and keep pace with the assigned readings/viewings, you will have no problem with the quizzes. If, however, you disappear for days, fall behind, or otherwise slack off, you will bomb on the quizzes, and the cumulative effect could bury you (see Grading section, below). Moreover, quizzes missed due to absences cannot be made up and will thus count as zeroes against your final quiz grade.
For the two short papers, you will have the option of selecting from sets of questions distributed in class or crafting topics of your own. The basic structure of this assignment is comparative/contrastive, asking you to develop arguments or perform readings using more than one of the assigned texts. I am willing to entertain creative options for the papers, but whatever you produce will need to work closely with at least two texts. Due to the size of this class, it is absolutely impossible for me to accept late papers for any reason short of serious illness or other unavoidable catastrophe. The papers are due in class on Monday of the week assigned and must be collected at that time, so make your preparations for planning and writing them accordingly.
The midterm and final will be in-class exams incorporating objective (identification, short-answer) and essay sections. These exams will test the material on the syllabus and in the lectures. Missed exams cannot be made up for any reason short of, etc. (see above, on late paper policy).
Grading: The breakdown in grading is as follows: Quizzes = 15%; Papers = 20% each; midterm exam = 20%; final exam = 25%, towards your final grade.
Note: In most cases, we will be covering a book and a film each week. Please try and finish the books before the Monday class sessions.
WEEK 1. Repression, Possession, Obsession
Monday: Introduction
Screening: None
Wednesday:
- Elizabeth Bowen, "The Demon Lover" (1944)
- Julio Cortázar, "Axolotl" (1967)
WEEK 2. Sex, Ghosts, and Other Ambiguities
Reading: Henry James, "The Turn of the Screw" (1898)
Screening: THE INNOCENTS (1961; dir. Jack Clayton)
WEEK 3. The Horrors of Modernity
Monday: Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" (1915)
Screening: UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1928; dir. Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali)
Wednesday: H.P. Lovecraft, THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD (1927)
WEEK 4. Mad Science
Reading: Mikhail Bulgakov, HEART OF A DOG (1925)
Screening: DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931; dir. Rouben Mamoulian)
WEEK 5. Gothic Romance Revisited
Reading: Isak Dinesen, SEVEN GOTHIC TALES (1934--selections
Screening: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946; dir. Jean Cocteau)
First Paper Due
WEEK 6. Everyday Magic
Reading: Fritz Leiber, CONJURE WIFE (1943)
Screening: CAT PEOPLE (1942; dir. Jacques Tourneur)
WEEK 7. Hauntings
Reading: Shirley Jackson, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (1959)
Screening: REPULSION (1965; dir. Roman Polanski)
WEEK 8. Midterm
Monday: Catch up session; preparations for the midterm exam
Screening: None
Wednesday: Midterm Exam
WEEK 9. Masks
Reading: Kobo Abé, THE FACE OF ANOTHER (1964)
Screening: ONIBABA (1964; dir. Kaneto Shindo)
WEEK 10. The Pleasures of Paranoia
Reading: Thomas Pynchon, THE CRYING OF LOT 49 (1966)
Screening: BLOWUP (1966; dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)
WEEK 11. Techno-Anarchism
Monday: Pynchon, cont'd
Screening: VIDEODROME (1983; dir. David Cronenberg)
Wednesday: J.G. Ballard, CRASH (1973)
WEEK 12. Desire Machines
Reading: Ballard, cont'd
Screening: PEEPING TOM (1959; dir. Michael Powell)
WEEK 13. Fairy Tales
Reading: Angela Carter, THE BLOODY CHAMBER (1979)
Screening: GREEN SNAKE (1993; dir. Tsui Hark)
WEEK 14. Catch-up and Review
Monday: Catch up session; preparations for the final exam
Second Paper Due
Screening: None
Wednesday: Thanksgiving Holiday
WEEK 15. The Postmodern Family Gothic
Reading: Iain Banks, THE WASP FACTORY (1984)
Screening: BLUE VELVET (1986; dir. David Lynch)
WEEK 16. Consumer Culture
Reading: Stephen King, SKELETON CREW (1985--selections
Screening: DAWN OF THE DEAD (1979; dir. George A. Romero)
