Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LI Gothic
School	Eng, Drama, & Creative Studies
Department	English Literature
Module Code	09 39923
Module Lead	Jimmy Packham
Level	Intermediate Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	What is it that goes bump in the night? Haven't we come this way before? And – who is this who is coming? The gothic is a truly thrilling genre – it stays with us, it gets under our skin – and it's these kinds of questions and their wider implications that preoccupy the writers of the gothic, and that will preoccupy us on this course. This Themes module will introduce students to the rich literature of the gothic as it has appeared over the last two-and-a-half centuries – from the 1760s to the present day. The module will consider the origins and development of the gothic in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the \"afterlife\" of the genre, as it continues to change and adapt through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will consider the ways in which the gothic delights in terrifying us, and why we delight in being terrified; we'll look to the political and social contexts that shape the genre, and debate whether this is a fundamentally radical or conservative genre. Across the course, we will explore the aesthetics and politics of such key features of gothic fiction as hauntings and ghosts, the uncanny, the undead, body horror, the ecogothic, postcolonial gothic; and it will examine important distinct cultural iterations of the genre, which might include the female gothic, the American and Caribbean gothics, southern gothic, Asian gothic.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the history and genre tropes of the gothic, and its literary manifestations from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first century, through close reading of individual works. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of thematic and theoretical frameworks for reading gothic literature from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first century. Critically examine and demonstrate expertise in the gothic as it relates to the historical and material conditions in which the genre emerged, framing arguments about specific periods of gothic fiction with appropriate historical and cultural knowledge. Relate gothic discourse to cognate fields of enquiry and demonstrate knowledge of the gothic as it appears in related forms and media.
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 3,500 word essay (100%) or A ten minute presentation (50%) with an accompanying 1,750 word critical reflection (50%). Reassessment: Failed component only 3,500 word essay (100%) or A ten minute presentation, which can be recorded (50%) with an accompanying 1,750 word critical reflection (50%).
Other
Reading List