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5310 Masters of British Literature
Gothic Fiction
Spring 2012, Wednesdays 6:00-8:40 PM, BUS 258
Instructor: Dr. Catherine E. Ross
Office: BUS 242
To contact Dr. Ross: E-mail: cross@uttyler.edu; office telephone: 903-566-7275
Office Hours: MWF 10:00-10:45 A.M., W 1:00-4:00 P.M., or by appointment
Policies and Information
Required textbooks:
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Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Norton Critical Edition, fourth ed. ISBN 0-393-97889-3
Godwin, William. Caleb Williams. Penguin Books. ISBN: 0-140-432566
Hogle, Jerrold, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN: 0-521-79466-8
Lewis, Matthew Gregory. The Monk. Dover Thrift Editions. ISBN 0-486-43214-9
Radcliffe, Ann. A Sicilian Romance. ISBN: 978-1-46-105354-5
Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. Oxford World’s Classic ISBN: 978-0-19-953721-1
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Longman Cultural Editions. ISBN: 0-321-42713-0
Suggested Websites:
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The Literary Gothic: www.litgothic.com
A Glossary of Literary Gothic Terms: personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~dougt/goth.html
Romantic Circles: www.rc.umd/
The Victorian Web: www.victorianweb.org
Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net: www.ron.umontreal.ca/
Course Content:
This course leads students through critical assessments of representative examples of British
Gothic fiction from the 18th and 19th centuries. We shall consider the social, historical, and philosophical
contexts that facilitated the creation and popularity of this highly mixed form, and we shall carefully
examine its characteristics, markers, and meanings. The course will begin with a consideration of
various statements about a central aesthetic concern in Gothic fiction—the sublime. Next, it will move
through a chronological study of six major Gothic novels: The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace
Walpole, A Sicilian Romance (1790) by Ann Radcliffe, Caleb Williams (1794) by William Godwin, The
Monk (1796) by Matthew Lewis, Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brönte, and The Picture of Dorian
Gray (1890) by Oscar Wilde. To accompany these primary readings, students will be assigned selected
chapters from the Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction (2002), ed. Jerrold Hogle. Each student will
also make one brief presentation to the class during the semester (see the attached syllabus for dates
and possible presentation topics). Finally, students will complete a term paper. There will be no
midterm or final examination.
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Course Learning Objectives:
By the end of the semester, students should:
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Be able to describe the various characteristics and markers of Gothic fiction, noting in
particular how this new subgenre influenced and changed subsequent literary expression
and taste.
Be knowledgeable about important authors and cultural and historical factors relevant to
the emergence of Gothic fiction
Be able to articulate and comment upon central themes and ideas that were voiced in
Gothic literature.
Have honed their close reading skills and expanded their knowledge of the formal
conventions of the novel.
Have, through their work on the term paper, developed a deep new vein of scholarly
knowledge.
Grading policy and criteria:
Students’ grades in this class will be based upon the extent and energy of their engagement with
class assignments and activities and upon the quality of their work on class presentations and term
papers. The following formula will be used to calculate grades:
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Class Participation 40%, this includes preparation for and engagement in class discussion
(in class and/or on blackboard)
Presentation 20%
Term Paper 40 %
All good learning is built upon the bedrock of individual effort and academic honesty. Students are
encouraged to collaborate with classmates when preparing for class discussion or class presentations
and when working on their research and writing. However, turning in or presenting work that is not the
product of one’s own learning or work in which source material is not adequately cited, as well as any
other form of academic dishonesty, will result in appropriate disciplinary action.
Last date to withdraw w/o penalty: March 26
Attendance:
This course requires regular attendance. Any student who misses two classes without a
legitimate, documented excuse, or who is chronically late (or who leaves class early more than once) will
have his/her final course grade automatically lowered by one full letter. Please inform your professor if
you know in advance that you will miss a particular class meeting and be prepared with documentation.
Communication:
It is important that you keep abreast of what is going on in this course at all times. You will need
to check our class Blackboard site and your Patriots email regularly.
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Get to know your professor.
This ought to go without saying for graduate students, but I say it nevertheless. You are
required to see me twice during the semester to discuss your term project; but I hope you will feel free
to come see me at any time. I am eager to talk with you about any concerns you might have about your
work or progress, about your special scholarly interests, or about your hopes for your academic career.
Fresh coffee and dark chocolate are almost always available in my office: BUS 242. My office hours are
listed above, if these times are inconvenient, I will be happy to set up an appointment for you at another
time
Class participation:
I believe that coming prepared and engaging actively in class discussions are essential to
learning in our discipline. To this end, class participation will figure significantly in your final course
grade. Students are required to speak up about the work at hand at least five times every week. To do
this, you may offer helpful comments in class discussion or on our course Blackboard discussion forums.
If you have not been able to speak up enough in class, use BB. You have until 6 PM Tuesday evening to
add additional comments on the previous week’s work
Class Presentations.
Each week at least one student will make a presentation to the class on a topic relating to the
author and text(s) assigned for that week. These presentations should include handouts and some kind
of visual aids and should last no less than ten and no more than twenty minutes. Please be sure you
have practiced your presentation in its entirety before you come to class and that all of your handouts
are ready and your visual aids work properly. Possible class presentation topics might be the life and
literary reputation of a writer, a close reading of a section of the assigned primary text or CC chapter for
that night, or the more detailed exploration of one of the characteristics, markers, or themes listed
below. Students should arrange the night and topic they wish to present as soon as possible and should
endeavor to coordinate with their classmates to make sure every class period has a presenter and
everyone has a different topic. Grading will be based upon how well prepared each student is (including
their handling of media), how useful their presentation and handouts are to their classmates, and how
effective they are as speakers. Here is the list of Characteristics, Markers, and Themes of British Gothic
fiction that we will consider this semester and that may be used as presentation topics:
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Antiquated spaces (castles, abbeys, decaying buildings, prisons, crypts, graveyards, large houses)
Secrets, hidden and haunting
“More interesting situations”
Vacillations between earthly laws of conventional reality and possibilities of the supernatural
Exploration of the sources, nature, and expressions of the passions
Boundary-crossing (real or psychological)
Class and power (aristocrats, priests, middle class aspirants to power)
The idea of the unconscious (repressed memories, dreams, repressed impulses)
Madness, hallucination
Contradictory anxieties: deep fears and deep longings (of a class, culture, state or group)
Terror , horror, or shock value (suspense, violence, the gross or grotesque)
Sanctioned identities/abjected identities
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Family (social identity, patriarchy, rise of the bourgeois family, dynamics between generations
and/or siblings, oedipal conflicts, incest, return to the mother, childbirth)
Gender issues (sexual identities, desire, sexual politics, misogyny, female subjection, homosocial
bonds, homophobia)
Confrontation of extremes: binaries such as low/high, life/death, natural/supernatural,
ancient/modern, realistic/artificial
Response to, fear of, construction of the Other (e.g.: monsters, moors, Catholics, zealots, those
who live on the edge without laws, homo- or bisexuals, exotics, gypsies, powerful women,
errant figures of any sort).
Use of generic or historical figures (monks, nuns, scientists, scholars, minstrels, knights, kings,
princes, slaves, concubines, loyal wives)
Borrowings from, blending with other literary forms such as epigraphs, poems, letters, lists,
anecdotes, diaries, interludes or digressions, folk tales, travel accounts, songs, superstitions,
Biblical stories or myths, medieval romance
Term Papers.
Term papers should be no less than twenty pages, not counting Works Cited, with standard MLA
formatting. Please select from the list of topics below and make an appointment with me as soon as
possible to focus and plan your project. At the time of your first appointment, we can make any
adjustments to your topic’s framing, or, we can work out the details of an entirely different project of
your own devising. (If you have an idea for a project of your own, please come to your first conference
fully prepared to explain it.) After Spring Break, we will devote two class periods to one-on-one
conferences to discuss where you are in your work, what issues or questions you might have at that
time, and what you need to do to finish the project and be proud of your work.
1. Vampires and Vampirism: Starting with The Vampyre (1819) by John Polidori and Dracula
(1897) by Bram Stoker. Other more recent examples may be included, but see Dr. Ross, this
project must be grounded in a study of these two original texts.
2. The Woman in White (1860) by Wilkie Collins. A study of a classic mystery thriller and what
this contributed to the form of and public taste for the mystery thriller
3. Zafloya, or the Moor (1806) by Charlotte Dacre. A female writer (scandalously) explores
taboos of class, race, and feminine desire.
4. Dickensian Gothicism: A study of Bleak House (1852-3)
5. Gothic Theater, three short Romantic era plays: The Borderers (1797) by Wordsworth, Remorse
(1813) by Coleridge, and Manfred (1817) by Byron. (see also Cambridge Companion, chapter 7,
“English Gothic theater”) [I have copies.]
6. Gothic Poetry: Selections from Lyrical Ballads (1798), by Coleridge (“The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner”) and by Wordsworth (“The Thorn” and “Goody Blake and Harry Gill”); plus Byron’s
“The Giaour” (1813) and STC’s “Christabel” (1816) [I have copies.]
7. The Gothic “greats” you never read: Depending upon length, select several from this list The
Mysteries of Udopho (1794), Frankenstein (1818), Jane Eyre (1847), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
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(1897), Dracula (1897). This project will include surveys of these texts’ critical reception and
your own analysis, with emphasis upon how these canonical Gothic texts relate to the other
primary texts we have been studying.
8. Gothic Intertextualities: Classic examples and Contemporary Iterations. Choose recent
manifestations of Gothic writing or theater and track their relationships to the classic examples.
E.G.: The writing of Anne Rice, Stephen King, etc., or films such as Rebecca, Blue Velvet, Silence
of the Lambs, etc. (see also Cambridge Companion, chapter 11, “The Gothic on screen,” and/or
chapter 13,”The contemporary Gothic: why we need it”)
Students’ Rights and Responsibilities
To review and understand the policies that affect your rights and responsibilities as a student at
UT Tyler, please go to this address:
http://www.uttyler.edu/wellness/StudentRightsandResponsibilities.html.
Grade Replacement/Forgiveness
If you are repeating this course for a grade replacement, you must file an intent to receive grade
forgiveness with the registrar by the 12th day of class. Failure to do so will result in both the original and
repeated grade being used to calculate your overall grade point average. Undergraduates will receive
grade forgiveness (grade replacement) for only three course repeats; graduates, for two course repeats
during his/her career at UT Tyler.
State-Mandated Course Drop Policy
Texas law prohibits a student who began college for the first time in Fall 2007 or thereafter from
dropping more than six courses during their entire undergraduate career. This includes courses dropped
at another 2-year or 4-year Texas public college or university. For purposes of this rule, a dropped
course is any course that is dropped after the census date (See Schedule of Classes for the specific date).
Exceptions to the 6-drop rule may be found in the catalog. Petitions for exemptions must be submitted
to the Registrar's Office and must be accompanied by documentation of the extenuating circumstance.
Please contact the Registrar's Office if you have any questions.
Disability Services
In accordance with federal law, a student requesting accommodation must provide
documentation of his/her disability to the Disability Services counselor. If you have a disability, including
a learning disability, for which you request an accommodation, please contact the Disability Services
office in UC 3150, or call (903) 566-7079.
Student Absence due to Religious Observance
Students who anticipate being absent from class due to a religious observance are requested to
inform the instructor of such absences by the second class meeting of the semester.
Student Absence for University-Sponsored Events and Activities
If you intend to be absent for a university-sponsored event or activity, you (or the event
sponsor) must notify the instructor at least two weeks prior to the date of the planned absence. At that
time the instructor will set a date and time when make-up assignments will be completed.
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Social Security and FERPA Statement:
It is the policy of The University of Texas at Tyler to protect the confidential nature of social
security numbers. The University has changed its computer programming so that all students have an
identification number. The electronic transmission of grades (e.g., via e-mail) risks violation of the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act; grades will not be transmitted electronically.
Emergency Exits and Evacuation:
Everyone is required to exit the building when a fire alarm goes off. Follow your instructor’s
directions regarding the appropriate exit. If you require assistance during an evacuation, inform your
instructor in the first week of class. Do Not re-enter the building unless given permission by University
Police, Fire department, or Fire Prevention Services.
Course Syllabus
January 18: Introduction to the course. Overview of the characteristics, markers, and themes of
Gothic fiction. Sometime between this class and the next meeting, please choose a date and a tentative
topic for your class presentation. Then, using Blackboard, email the entire class to coordinate with your
classmates to make sure every class period has a presenter and everyone has a different topic. In class
on 1/25, we will firm up these arrangements.
January 25: Finalize nights and topics for class presentations. Discussion of Cambridge Companion
chapter 1 “Introduction: the Gothic in western culture” and The Castle of Otranto, by Horace
Walpole. (After this class you should have some idea about your term paper topic. Make an
appointment with Dr. Ross as soon as you do; sometime in the next two weeks.) Possible presentation
topics:
 CC chapter 1 “…the Gothic in western culture”
 Strawberry Hill and other examples of Gothic architecture
 Walpole’s life and work
 Walpole’s prefaces to the novel
 Characteristics, markers, themes:
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Presenters:
February 1: Discussion of Cambridge Companion chapter 2 “The genesis of “Gothic” fiction” and The
Castle of Otranto. Possible presentation topics:
 CC chapter 2 “The genesis of “Gothic” fiction”
 Strawberry Hill
 Characteristics, markers, themes:
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Presenters:
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February 8: Discussion of A Sicilian Romance, by Ann Radcliffe. Possible presentation topics:
 The female gothic
 Radcliffe’s life and work
 Connections to Walpole
 Characteristics, markers, themes
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Presenters:
February 15: Discussion of Cambridge Companion chapter 5, “Gothic fictions and Romantic writing in
Britain” and Caleb Williams, by William Godwin. Term paper conferences with Dr. Ross should be
complete by now. Possible presentation topics:
 CC chapter 5: “Gothic fictions and Romantic writing”
 Godwin’s life and work
 Godwin’s politics
 Science, science fiction
 Characteristics, markers, themes:
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Presenters:
February 22: Discussion of Caleb Williams. Possible presentation topics:
 Godwin’s life and work
 Godwin’s politics
 Science, science fiction
 Characteristics, markers, themes:
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Presenters:
February 29: Discussion of The Monk, by Matthew Lewis. Possible presentation topics:
 Lewis’ life and work
 The male gothic
 Religion, evil, Catholicism
 Characteristics, markers, themes:
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Presenters:
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March 7: Discussion of The Monk. Possible presentation topics:
 Characteristics, markers, themes:
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Presenters:
March 10-18: Spring Break
March 21: No regular class; one-on-one conferences to talk about your progress on your term paper.
Come by appointment times listed below to Dr. Ross’s office
1. 4:00
2. 4:30:
3. 5:00
4. 5:30
5. 6:00
6. 6:30
7. 7:00
8. 7:30
9. 8:00
10. 8:30
11. Alternative time this week:
March 28: No regular class; term paper conferences continue. Come by appointment times listed
below to Dr. Ross’s office
12. 4:00
13. 4:30:
14. 5:00
15. 5:30
16. 6:00
17. 6:30
18. 7:00
19. 7:30
20. 8:00
21. 8:30
22. Alternative time this week:
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April 4: Discussion of Cambridge Companion, chapter 8, “The Victorian Gothic in English novels and
stories, 1830-1880” and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brönte. Possible presentation topics:
 CC chapter 8 “Victorian Gothic”
 Bronte’s life and work
 The female gothic revisited
 Characteristics, markers, themes:
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Presenters:
April 11: Discussion of Wuthering Heights. Possible presentation topics:
 Characteristics, markers, themes:
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Presenters:
April 18: Discussion of Wuthering Heights. Possible presentation topics:
 Characteristics, markers, themes:
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Presenters:
April 25: Discussion of The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. Possible presentation topics:
 Wilde’s life and work
 Homoerotic, homosocial gothic
 Characteristics, markers, themes:
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Presenters:
May 2: Discussion of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Possible presentation topics:
 Characteristics, markers, themes of this novel
 Dominant or favorite characteristics, markers, themes of Gothic fiction studied to date:
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Presenters:
May 9: Term Papers due by 6 PM.