Module: ENG5109-20 Gothic Origins and Innovations

Level: 5

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Nicky Lloyd

Module Tutor Contact Details: n.lloyd@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

Gothic Origins and Innovations compares the earliest generic Gothic writings of the eighteenth century with works published across the nineteenth century, demonstrating the ongoing significance of the Gothic as a diverse, experimental and evolving literary form. The module will address questions of genre and historical form alongside an interrogation of how these works relate to the cultural anxieties and obsessions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Students will encounter the social, political and cultural contexts that inform the Gothic’s various concerns about gender, sexuality, nation, science, race and class.

2. Outline syllabus:

The module will begin with an orientation that will allow the formation of a working definition of Gothic aesthetics and stylistics that we will return to in the weeks that follow. We will continue our exploration of the origins of the Gothic novel by considering the development and innovation of the form during the Romantic period, focusing on the historical impact of the French Revolution on Gothic writing and a theoretical focus on the sublime and distinctions between terror and horror. We will move on to follow the development of the Gothic mode through the Victorian period.

3. Teaching and learning activities:

Teaching will be by way of lectures and seminars, supplemented by individual tutorials and self-directed work.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Essay of 2,500 words

• % Weighting: 50%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Essay of 2,500 words

• % Weighting: 50%