Prof. Jackson holly.jackson@umb.edu
Wheatley 6-022
Office Hours: Wednesdays and Fridays after class
ENGLISH 437: READING THE GOTHIC
Headless horsemen, executed witches, and cursed bloodlines. As Toni Morrison has observed, “for a people who made much of their ‘newness’ – their potential, freedom, and innocence – it is striking how dour, how troubled, how frightened and haunted our early and founding literature truly is.” This course reveals that from the nation’s inception, American authors have imagined the new world to be haunted by histories of patricidal revolution, human trafficking, and nature defiled. We will consider the gothic tendency in American fiction as a literary strategy for theorizing the troublesome inheritance of American identity from its eighteenth-century roots through postmodern innovations.
Learning and Writing Goals

Students will become familiar with the major works and conventions of American gothic fiction.
 Students will gain an understanding of this genre’s position within the American tradition more broadly and of each work’s specific historical and cultural contexts.

Students will work to advance their expository writing skills over the course of the semester. In analytical essays, students will be expected to support a complex, original thesis with textual evidence in polished and error-free prose.

Students will become familiar with critical approaches to American gothicism and demonstrate the ability to build on these interpretive frameworks in class discussion and written assignments.
Required Texts Available in the Bookstore, Amazon, etc – you need paper copies!
(This list will be supplemented with a number of texts available on the course wiki)
Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 9780375757211
The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe 0394716787
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wall-Paper 1558611584
Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood 0743467698
Toni Morrison, Beloved 1400033411
William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! 0679732187
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird 0061743526
McCullers, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe 9780618565863

Requirements, Assessment, and Grading
Three essays – 50% (further details provided on assignment sheets)
Four quizzes – 40% (ten short-answer questions each)
Quality of participation – 10%
Course Policies
* Submit a printed copy of your written work on the due dates indicated in the course calendar. Always use 12-point Times New Roman font with one-inch margins and double spacing. There should be page numbers in the upper right hand corner starting on the second page of everything you turn in, and take the time to locate a stapler or paper clip for your work.
* In fairness to the class, I may choose not to accept written work after the due date or to accept it with a grade penalty. One extended deadline per student may be granted on a case-by-case basis if negotiated before the due date.
*There are no make-up quizzes, but I will drop your lowest quiz grade. This means that if you miss one quiz, I factor your average from the remaining three.
But if you miss a second quiz, you will receive a zero, putting your overall course grade in jeopardy.
* You may be absent three times for any reason with no grade penalty and no need to explain. Additional absences may lower your final grade. Six absences will be considered grounds for failure in the course. There are no “approved” absences, even with a doctor’s note, so use your three absences carefully. Under special circumstances, I will consider a letter from the office of Dean of Students in evaluating absences. Habitual tardiness will also lower your grade. If you arrive ten or more minutes after class has begun, you will likely be turned away from the classroom and counted as absent.
*All electronic devices, including laptops and cell phones, should remain off in the classroom. Silence your phone and remove your headphones before class begins; texting in class is not permitted.
*I will communicate with the class using your UMB email addresses. If you do not check this account frequently, please have your messages forwarded to your primary account. You are responsible for information conveyed by email.

*I encourage you to schedule one-on-one meetings with me to discuss writing assignments and your progress in the course. This is the best way to receive instruction tailored to your individual needs.
Accommodations
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 offers guidelines and support for curriculum modifications and adaptations for students with documented disabilities. If applicable, students may obtain adaptation recommendations from the Ross Center for
Disability Services, CC-2-2100, 617-287-7430. The student must present these recommendations and discuss them with each professor within a reasonable period, preferably by the end of Drop/Add period.
Academic Integrity / Plagiarism
Students are required to adhere to the University Policy on Academic Standards and
Cheating, to the University Statement on Plagiarism and the Documentation of Written
Work, and to the Code of Student Conduct as delineated in the Catalog of Undergraduate
Programs. The Code is available online at: http://www.umb.edu/life_on_campus/policies/code/
Every bit of work that you turn in for this class should be your own. Please contact me if you have a question about what constitutes academic dishonesty. There is no need to consult outside sources, including basic Internet searches, to successfully complete any assignment in this course. Generating your own ideas in response to the assigned readings should be your fundamental goal; please resist the urge to look elsewhere for information or inspiration. Borrowing words or ideas from outside sources can result in failure on the assignment or in the course.

COURSE CALENDAR
M 1/26
EARLY AMERICAN ANXIETIES
Introductions
; Freneau, “Indian Burial Ground”
W 1/28 Irving, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
F 1/30 Hawthorne, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “The Birthmark”
M 2/2
W 2/4
F 2/6
Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Black Cat”
Reading the Gothic Psychologically: Sigmund Freud, “The Uncanny”
F 2/13
Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym 748-791 (through ch. 6)
M 2/9
Pym 791-843 (through chapter 16) QUIZ 1
W 2/11
Finish The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
Reading Race in the Gothic: Morrison, excerpt from Playing in the Dark
2/16 – HOLIDAY
GOTHIC GENDER AND SEXUALITY
W 2/18
Poe “Ligeia,” “The Premature Burial”
F 2/20 ESSAY 1 DUE;
Gilman, The Yellow Wall-Paper (full text)
M 2/
23
Jeffrey
Weinstock, excerpt from Scare Tactics
W 2/25
Cooke, “My Visitation;” Brown, “Here and There”
F 2/27
Wynne, “The Little Room;” Phelps, “Since I Died”
M 3/2 Flex Day
AFRICAN AMERICAN GOTHIC I
W 3/4 Of One Blood 1-52 (through chapter 6)

F 3/6
Hopkins, Of One Blood to p102 (through chapter 12)
M 3/9
Of One Blood to p148 (through chapter 17) QUIZ 2
W 3/11
Finish Of One Blood
F 3/13 Paravasini-Gebert, “Colonial and Post-Colonial Gothic: The Caribbean”
MARCH 15 – 22: SPRING BREAK
M 3/23 Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”
W 3/25 ESSAY 2 DUE
SOUTHERN GOTHIC
F 3/27
M 3/30 Absalom through chapter 4
W 4/1
F 4/3
Flannery O’Connor stories
Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! through chapter 2
Absalom through chapter 6
Continue Absalom; QUIZ 3
M 4/6
W 4/8
F 4/10
M 4/13
Absalom through chapter 7
Finish Absalom
McCullers, The Ballad of the Sad Café (full text)
Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird 1-71 (through chapter 7)
W 4/15
To Kill A Mockingbird to p163 (through chapter 14)
F 4/17
To Kill A Mockingbird to p226 (through chapter 19)
4/20 – HOLIDAY

W 4/22
Finish
To Kill a Mockingbird
F 4/24
READING THE GOTHIC IN FILM
Film screening in class, reading tba
M 4/27 Watch Hitchcock’s Rebecca on your own before this meeting
viewing response due
AFRICAN AMERICAN GOTHIC II
W 4/29
Morrison, Beloved 1-43
F 5/1
Beloved 44-85; discuss essay 3
M 5/4
W 5/6
F 5/8
Beloved
Beloved
Beloved
86-124
125-165
169-209
M 5/11
Finish Beloved
W 5/13 Quiz 4 and
Conclusions
SEE ASSIGNMENT SHEET FOR ESSAY 3 DUE DATE