LMC 3202: Studies in Fiction: Gothic Fiction

Dr. Narin Hassan

T/TH 2-3:15pm

Course Description: 

This course will trace the prominence of gothic, supernatural and sensational elements in novels of the nineteenth century as well as contemporary fictions. Much of the fiction we will read addresses or attempts to evoke feelings—particularly uncanny and disturbing feelings—and produces intricate plots devised to engage and sustain readers with melodramatic, gothic, and sensational elements. We will focus specifically on texts from the nineteenth-century that represent domesticity, gender, and crime and then examine the enduring influence of gothic narratives from this period to contemporary writing and culture. Readings will include Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Bram Stoker, Dracula, George Eliot, The Lifted Veil, and Florence Marryat, The Blood of the Vampire, among others.