Hobgoblin romances and shilling shockers: The rise of the literary Gothic,
1750-1830
MT
Dr Christina Morin (cmorin@tcd.ie)
Summary
Haunted castles, resurrected bodies, murderous monks, blood-thirsty vampires,
and preyed-upon heroines – these are some of the things we expect from a text
advertising itself as ‘Gothic’. But, what does ‘Gothic’ really mean? When did it
emerge as a recognizable cultural phenomenon, and why? This course will
address these questions, and, in so doing, provide an introduction to the
emergence of a ‘Gothic’ aesthetic in Britain over the course of the long eighteenth
century.
Aims
This course aims to introduce students to the emergence and development of a
recognizable Gothic aesthetic in the literature of the long eighteenth century. To
achieve this aim, it will examine, among other things, contemporary definitions
and reception of the Gothic; the Sublime; the formal and generic variations of the
literary Gothic; and twentieth- and twenty-first century perceptions of Gothic
literature from the period 1750-1830.
Required Texts
 Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the
Sublime and Beautiful. 1757. Ed. Adam Phillips. (Oxford, 2008).

Radcliffe, Ann. The Italian. 1797. Ed. Frederick Garber. (Oxford, 2008).

Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. 1764. Ed. W.S. Lewis. (Oxford,
2008).

Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. 1818. Ed. James Kinsley and John Davie.
(Oxford, 2008).
All of the course texts are available from Amazon. Additional course material will
be made available in one of two ways: via online resources or by photocopy.
Schedule
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Introduction: What is the Gothic?
Graveyard Poetry (reading material to be provided)
Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry (part II)
Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
Radcliffe, The Italian 1
Radcliffe, The Italian 2
STUDY WEEK – NO CLASS
Lewis, The Castle Spectre (available via Eighteenth-Century Collections
Online)
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Gothic chapbooks/short fiction (reading material to be provided)
Maturin, Bertram; or the Castle of St. Aldobrand (available via Google
Books)
Austen, Northanger Abbey 1
Austen, Northanger Abbey 2