Introduction to Gothic Literature

This class is a survey of Gothic literature. Gothic literature is named for the Gothic cathedrals and architecture of the time and settings of the stories. Students will read excerpts and full stories from Gothic literature and learn the history and stories behind the fiction. Students will learn how to identify Gothic stories by the plot devices and settings used, such as the decaying old castle or house, the adjacent graveyard, or decaying family crypt. We will look at the lives of Gothic authors Edgar Allan Poe, John William Polidori, Mary Shelley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elizabeth Gaskell, Bram Stoker, and Anne Radcliffe among others to determine if their life and times or their environment had any influence on their haunting writings. 

Works included for the class to be read in the week in between classes:
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (introduction into the Gothic Literature Genre) 
"The Vampyre" by John William Polidori (written alongside Mary Shelley when she wrote Frankenstein) (We will look into the workings of the vampire) 
"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (A descendant of one of the judges of the Salem Witch Trials!) (This is our story to introduce us to witches) 
"The Old Nurse's Story" by Elizabeth Gaskell (Our ghost story written on the invitation of Charles Dickens.)