Preparation Week Assignment

Dear Students, Welcome to Narrative Form: the Gothic. I'm happy to see many names that I know on the roster and look forward to meeting some new students.

We'll be looking at the Gothic as a genre that crosses cultural form, including the visual arts, poetry, short story and popular culture.

For your preparation week assignment, I've selected some more familiar terrain that fits with the spirit of Halloween upcoming: read Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher." As you read, consider how the story relates to this definition of the Gothic:

Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto introduced the term "gothic romance" to the literary world in 1764. While it presented, at first, a topic for argument and inflammatory rhetoric, over the years the gothic has come to be respected as a venerable albeit still controversial genre. However, due to its inherently supernatural, surreal and sublime elements, it has maintained a dark and mysterious appeal. Since 1764, many authors have followed in the footsteps of Walpole, including such diverse names as Anne Radcliffe, Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson. This vide variety of viewpoints, however, is what makes one single, all-encompassing definition of gothic literature so very difficult to ascertain.

So then, what is "the gothic"? Generally speaking, gothic literature delves into the macabre nature of humanity in its quest to satiate intrinsic desire to plumb the depths of terror. Here are seven descriptors that frequently appear in works called 'gothic': 1) the appearance of the supernatural, 2) the psychology of horror and/or terror, 3) the poetics of the sublime, 4) a sense of mystery and dread 5) the appealing hero/villain, 6) the distressed heroine, and 7) strong moral closure.

Please bring into class on the first day, an answer to the question: "How does 'The Fall of the House of Usher' relate to the seven descriptors listed above?" I would expect your response to be around 400 words in length. Bring a hard copy to class the first day.

I'll send each of you a word document of Poe's short story. Or you can look it up www.gutenberg.org. (Look under author "Poe").

Looking forward to seeing you and I hope to make this a very engaging and erudite course for all of you. Please enjoy your break, -Anna J.