Intro to Genres: The Gothic Lens

Undergraduate / Graduate

Like the monsters it so often portrays, Gothic fiction is at once a transgressive, seductive, and mutable genre-blending horror, mystery, and romance and using supernatural elements to blur the line between realism and fantasy. It's amid this ambiguity that the Gothic is at its most evocative and visceral, powerfully dramatizing our encounters with the irrational and inexplicable in nature, in others, and in ourselves. This Arts Core course will focus on these psychologically provocative aspects of the genre. As we read Gothic works from different eras and cultures, we'll examine what these stories of extraordinary conflict might reveal about the horrors and mysteries of ordinary life-of our hidden desires, anxieties, and pathologies. Crucially, we'll approach them from the writer's perspective and consider what the Gothic enables a writer to explore and express that other genres may not. With this in mind, students will write their "Gothic Scenes" throughout the quarter, applying their own intimate Gothic lens to elusive encounters from their past.