Module: EN7010-30 Crime and the Gothic: Pasts and Presents

Level: 7

Credit Value: 30

Module Tutor: Fiona Peters and William Hughes

Module Tutor Contact Details: f.peters@bathspa.ac.uk and w.hughes@bathspa.ac.uk

1.Brief description and aims of module

Following an introduction led by both tutors, this module will be taught in two complementary parts reflecting the dual focus of the MA programme

The Gothic component will contextualise a range of less-read Gothic fictions with reference to critical responses to the genre ranging from dilettante eighteenth-century reviews to contemporary academic writing. Whilst the module will explore central issues of generic style, taste, canon and gendered authorship, it will develop further the students’ knowledge of contemporary interdisciplinary theory. Specific areas of study may include the eclipse of psychoanalytical criticism by materialist approaches; the transformation of gender studies into Queer theory; the rise of a discrete field of ecoGothic; and the relationship between the medical humanities, disability studies, forensics, nosology and pathology in the study of the Gothic. Students will be strongly encouraged to make use of on-line resources in their study of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century reviewing culture in particular.

The Crime Fiction element of the core module will prioritise the history and practice of criticism in its relation to genre. It will explore the way in which Crime Fiction emerged as a genre in the mid-nineteenth century, and chart the influence of writers such as Conan Doyle and M. E. Braddon, particularly in their appropriation of elements from genres such as Gothic and Sensation Fiction. After this, the module will consider the effect of the various sets of ‘rules’ that seemingly governed the ‘who-dun-its’ of the Golden Age in Britain, and the disruption of these through the pulp fiction narratives that influenced Hard Boiled writing in the United States. The module will then examine the 1980s debates around narrative, before concluding with the development of academic criticism in the last twenty years. This part of the module will interrogate the enduring popularity of Crime Fiction, highlighting issues relevant to contemporary society such as guilt, culpability, morality, gender and authority. The module approaches the genre thematically, emphasising the ambiguous role and function of the detective (who may be a private eye or institutionalised within the police), and identifying particular historical and methodological features characteristic to the four most significant sub-genres.

On completion of this module, students will

• be aware of the limits of, and issues raised by, canon
• have reflected on the cultural, historical and gendered contexts associated with the set texts
• have a proficiency in the central critical and theoretical traditions of both genres
• have interrogated the connections between the two genres
• have developed a sophisticated understanding of interdisciplinary practice in the historical and contemporary criticism of both genres

2.Outline syllabus

Jointly led introduction to Crime and the Gothic (FP & WH) Gothic Unit (WH)

• dilettante criticism and early Gothic stylistics
• Gothic: adaptation and revision
• The rise of the Ghost story
• Gothic, sexuality and slavery
• interdisciplinary approaches to Gothic
• Academic theory and the contemporary Gothic novel

Crime Unit (FP)

• Nineteenth-century crime fiction beyond the canon
• Disrupting the Golden Age
• Interdisciplinary approaches to crime fiction
• Crime Fiction, gender and sexuality
• Psychopathology and villainy
• Forensics past and present

3.Teaching and learning activities

Students will participate in a variety of intense, postgraduate-level tasks during contact time, and will carry out digital as well as library-based research under their own direction. Representative activities in the seminar room will include

• tutor and student led seminars
• plenary and small-group discussion
• individual and group presentations
• analysis of rare texts in digital form
• practical analysis using online digital resources
• field trips and study visits in the Bath/Bristol area and further afield
• independent study
• Minerva and other web resources

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work
• Description: Essay 3500 words
• % Weighting: 50%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Course Work
• Description: Essay 3500 words
• % Weighting: 50%