How and when did gothic literature develop? How is horror in literature similar and/or different from gothic? The course traces trends in Gothic forms, from its origins of the damp and dark castles of Europe to the fruitlessness of the contemporary American landscape. Students will identify gothic conventions and themes such as the haunted house, family dynamics, apparitions, entrapment, secrecy, and the sublime. Through the analysis of novels, short stories, and poetry spanning roughly 200 years, students will explore questions about the supernatural, the psychology of horror and terror, the significance of fantasy and fear, the desire for moral closure, and the roles of gender, race, class, and sexuality. Probable selections include novels such as: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte; House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne; Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Other selections may include: stories and/or poems by Poe, Faulkner, Irving, Hawthorne, Oates and Plath. Possible films include Psycho, The Birds, Vertigo, The Woman in Black, etc. Artwork related to the literature will also be analyzed.