American Gothic

This course explores Gothic short stories, novels, poems, and films by American authors. The gothic, which narrates unspeakable crimes, supernatural adventures, and descents into madness, expresses collective anxieties. What inspires fear? In what ways does American gothic respond to specific political, scientific, and societal developments in the Unites States? To address these questions we will link gothic tropes (hidden corpses, disembodied voices, and labyrinthine spaceships) to historical developments in science, and religion, as well as ideologies of race and gender. The reading list may include works by Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Flannery O'Connor, Henry James, and H.P. Lovecraft. Films may include <I>Alien, Event Horizon, or Rosemary's Baby. </I>