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The course traces the genesis of Gothic fiction in the context of the social and cultural transformations of gender roles in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. By exploring the spunky dungeons of medieval monasteries and abandoned abbeys, we will analyze, among other things, typical Gothic emotions, such as fear, terror, and horror. Following the central question to what extent these emotions had a different appeal to male and female writers and readers we will work out ideational and narrative differences between the so-called male and female Gothic from the perspectives of the social history of the novel, psychology and cultural history. Our discussions will include, e.g., how the emotional mobilization of terror and horror serve as a therapy of ennui, as alibis for the mis en discours of culturally marginalized topics, such as violence or sexuality. Participants are expected to have read the following novel before the beginning of the semester: Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764). |
