{"id":512,"date":"2025-05-17T14:39:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T21:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/?p=512"},"modified":"2025-05-19T13:01:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T20:01:25","slug":"engl-100-024-january-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/2025\/05\/17\/engl-100-024-january-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"ENGL 100\/024 (January 2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ENGL 100\/024: Reading and Writing about Language and Literatures<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Haunted Houses<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Term 2 TTh 3:30-5:00 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u201cWhat 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.\u201d \u2013 <em>The Devil\u2019s Backbone\u00a0<\/em>(dir. Guillermo Del Toro)<\/p>\n<p>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 such tales of terror and horror, even in the 21<sup>st\u00a0<\/sup>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.<\/p>\n<p>Core texts tentatively include Shirley Jackson, <em>The Haunting of Hill House<\/em>; Alan Garner, <em>The Owl Service<\/em>; Sarah Waters, <em>The Little Stranger<\/em>; Helen Oyeyemi, <em>White is for Witching<\/em>; and <em>The Others\u00a0<\/em>(dir. Alejandro Amen\u00e1bar); as well as Gardner and Diaz, <em>Reading and Writing About Literature<\/em> (6th edition). 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 \u201cfixed\u201d or consensus reading of any text.<\/p>\n<p>Evaluation will tentatively be based on a midterm essay and a term paper (both requiring secondary academic research), a final reflection essay, and participation in discussion.<\/p>\n<p>Keep checking this site for updates concerning texts and requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ENGL 100\/024: Reading and Writing about Language and Literatures Haunted Houses Term 2 TTh 3:30-5:00 p.m. \u201cWhat is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/2025\/05\/17\/engl-100-024-january-2026\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":450,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/450"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":529,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions\/529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/drgmbaxter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}