Übung Theory and Literature (Gruppe II), Thurs 10-12h
Please note: Due to the Covid 19 pandemic Theory&Literature (group II) will entirely take place ONLINE! (not in ES227 as initially planned), Zoom link: https://wwu.zoom.us/j/98992617868
Katharina Andrea Kalthoff, M.A.: katharina.kalthoff@uni-muenster.de
Topic and Title:
Gothic Romanticism: Villains, Ruins and Haunted Landscapes
While the Gothic novel has often been dismissed as the unloved offset of the Romantic period in literary history, it is today commonly accepted that Gothic and Romantic writing operate simultaneously throughout the epoch and that Gothic elements are constitutive even for Romantic poetry. In this course, students will first be introduced to the Gothic genre and deepen their knowledge about the historical, cultural and ideological context of the Romantic era. We will engage with the aesthetic categories that evoke terror and horror, from the creation of the sublime to different implementations of the supernatural. Students will get to know literary archetypes that are still present in popular culture such as the Gothic villain, the Gothic heroine, the Romantic vampire and Frankenstein's monster. We will discuss the Romantic concepts of nature and analyse the haunted British landscape as symbolic space in literature. At the end of the course, students will be able to answer the following questions: What is Gothic? What is the quality and value of this literary form? Which other forms of writing did it inspire? In in-class discussions and presentations students will have the chance to critically engage with chosen key texts by applying Postcolonial, Feminist and Ecocritical theory.
Students will have to buy and read the following novels:
1. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (192 pages): all students are asked to read The Castle of Otranto prior to the second session, 12th Nov 2020
2. A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe
(149 pages)
3. Frankenstein, or, The Modern
Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (300 pages)
A reader containing further reading and secondary material will be available by the beginning of the semester.
- Lehrende/r: Katharina Andrea Kalthoff