Reading and Writing About Literature – Term 2 TTh 12:30-2:00 p.m. – Gisèle M. Baxter
Haunted Houses
“What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber.”
– The Devil’s Backbone (dir. Guillermo Del Toro)
Where is the fascination, even when the deepest mysteries of the universe are being scientifically unlocked, in stories of haunted houses? What accounts for the lure, and even the enjoyment, of tales of terror and horror, even in the 21st century? This course examines the Gothic influence in texts where collisions of past and present, and implications of the uncanny, allow fascinating investigations of social codes and their transgression.
Core texts include Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, Alan Garner’s The Owl Service, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, Sarah Waters’s The Little Stranger, and The Others (dir. Alejandro Amenábar). Through readings in current criticism and theory, we will develop strategies for textual analysis in literary and cultural studies. We will also consider the difficulty, if not impossibility, of reaching a “fixed” or consensus reading of any text. You will write two short essays, a term paper requiring secondary research, and a final examination, and will contribute to in-class and online discussion.
Keep checking this post for updates concerning the course, its texts, and its requirements.