House Language

We shall explore the house and its adjacent places and categories, with a focus upon narrative mannerism, terror and the grotesque, and the creation of literary form. We'll discuss stories, essays, household artifacts and etiquette, architectural plans and dangerous parlor games. Works by, among others: Georges Perec, H.G. Wells, Shirley Jackson, Isabella Beeton, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Frank Lloyd Wright, Rube Goldberg and Edith Wharton.