ENG (0122) 222 - Gothic and Horror Literature

Credits: 3.00

Students will study scary stories. Beginning with eighteenth-century Gothic, students examine how the literature of horror is used to unmask and explore the anxieties of modern life. Reading across different genres and time periods, students investigate how this enduring form mutates in response to social change.

Students will;

● identify and evaluate the various constitutive elements of the Gothic and horror genre, being able to identify recurring motifs, images, and themes,

● develop an understanding of the historical and aesthetic context of the horror genre,

● understand the literary conventions that manifest themselves in the Gothic even as it mutates across genre, media, cultures, and time,

● develop the necessary writing and reading skills for writing well-argued, articulate, critical essays on the genre,

● produce theoretically informed essays that engage the primary literature and relevant scholarly conversations,

● demonstrate their knowledge of assigned texts, their historical contexts, and stylistic features In exams, written work, and classroom discussions,

● conduct original and focused research using relevant scholarly tools both online and in the library, for their essays and annotated bibliographies.