Journal Notes:  Watch the British Library video detailing the tropes and history of the Gothic in Literature.  Make detailed notes in your journal on EACH of the categories AND the historical origins of the genre.  

"The Demon  Lover"- Ghost Story

Read and listen to the Horror Babble recording of "The Demon Lover" by Elizabeth Bowen.  Annotate the story for Gothic tropes and characteristics using your notes and handouts.

"The Demon Lover" traditional ballad lyrics and performance and Background notes on the Scottish ballad's history and implications.

What human conditions, experiences, emotions can be symbolized by ghosts/ghost imagery in literature?  Consider what an author might use a ghost to signify in a story or poem.  Make a list of possibilities on your journal page.

Commenting on the story, Atwood says: “I’ve long been interested in the differences between astonishing ‘tales’ and realistic ‘stories,’ with one borderline being the supernatural. What might happen when tale meets story—when the legend-stuff of vampire tales meets the solid fact of a disease that mimics vampirism, such as porphyria? How would the pre-modern family handle it? And what about the narrator, who is human despite what others may think of her?” 

"Feed her bread, the doctor had said.  She'll want a lot of bread.  That, and potatoes.  She'll want to drink blood.  Chicken blood will do, or the blood of a cow.  Don't let her have too much.  He told us the name of the disease, which had some Ps and Rs in it and meant nothing to us.  He'd only seen a case like me once before... She's a lusus naturae, he'd said.... Freak of Nature." (261)

 The Woman in Black FRQ2 Prose Passage Presentation and Essay Prompt: How to approach the FRQ2 question (Passage attached here)  Read the passage and go through the presentation.