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Gothic Literature

The Gothic novel, or in an alternative term, Gothic romance, is a type of prose fiction which was inaugurated by Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (1764)—the subtitle denotes its setting in the Middle Ages—and flourished through the early nineteenth century. Some writers followed Walpole’s example by setting their stories in the medieval period; others set them in a Catholic country, especially Italy or Spain. The locale was often a gloomy castle furnished with dungeons, subterranean passages, and sliding panels; the typical story focused on the sufferings imposed on an innocent heroine by a cruel and lustful villain, and made bountiful use of ghosts, mysterious disappearances, and other sensational and supernatural occurrences (which in a number of novels turned out to have natural explanations). The principal aim of such novels was to evoke chilling terror by exploiting mystery and a variety of horrors. Many of them are now read mainly as period pieces, but the best opened up to fiction the realm of the irrational and of the perverse impulses and nightmarish terrors that lie beneath the orderly surface of the civilized mind.

Abrams, M, Harpham, G. (2012). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Boston: Cengage Learning

Winter Reading: Frankenstein

Reinterpreting Frankenstein through New Historicism / Cultural Studies

1. How is science portrayed in Frankenstein? Consider that this book was written in the midst of vast scientific advances and the advent of the Industrial Revolution.
2. You might have noticed some Christian influences in this text. To start off, there's the creator/creation paradigm. In addition, The creature is compared to Adam, but he is also compared to the fallen angel—Satan—and Victor takes on comparisons to God. You could even go so far as to call Victor's death a sacrifice that makes him a Christ figure. What might Shelley be saying about religion, and Christianity in particular?
3. In what ways does the novel present knowledge as dangerous and destructive? What does this tells us about society at that time?
4. Think about the motives that drive the protagonist to plumb into the depths of science in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. What does it indicate about the concerns of the author with the plight of man and society?

Reinterpreting Frankenstein through Narratology

5. The connection between science fiction and the Gothic is a longstanding  one, capable of being traced to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Frankenstein conventionally demarcates the close of the first phase of the Gothic. Science fiction combines the imaginative innovation of fantasy with a semblance of a realist commitment to a world that is broadly recognizable in terms of, variously, its geography, species, politics, ethics, or technology. Find in the text examples of both genres.
6. Narrative in Frankenstein shifts from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to the monster and finally back to Walton. What is the effect of presenting different characters’ viewpoints, especially those of Victor and the monster?
7. What is the role of the letters and written communication throughout the novel?

Reinterpreting Frankenstein through Gender Studies

8. Discuss the presentation of women in the novel. Do Victor and the monster differ in their view of women, and if so, how?
9. Do Victor and the monster differ in their view of women, and if so, how?
10. What Makes a Monster and What Makes a Man? Explore the Relationship between the Creator and the Creation in the Gothic Novel.


Reinterpreting Frankenstein through Psychoanalytic Criticism

11. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, could one interpret Frankenstein and his creature as two aspects of the same person? In other words, does the monster represent the evil side of the good doctor?
12. How did Mary Shelley explore the idea of a hidden or double self (doppelganger)? In what ways did these representations express changing ideas about sexuality, gender, and class?
13. In Frankenstein, Victor's rejection of the Monster metaphorically represents the ego's rejection of the unconscious. How is it represented in the novel?
14. The theory of Freud about the makeup of the human psyche could be applied to the interpretation of the text. To what extent does Frankenstein reflect Freud’s views of the id, the ego, and the superego? Is man hopelessly divided against himself? Does the author see any hope for one who seeks to keep the savage within under control?
15. What Makes a Monster and What Makes a Man? Explore the Relationship between the Creator and the Creation in the Gothic Novel.
16. Trace the similarities between Victor and the monster. Consider their respective relationships with nature, desires for family, and any other important parallels you find. Do Victor and the monster become more similar as the novel goes on? How does their relationship with each other develop?

Reinterpreting Frankenstein through Post-colonialism

17. Some critics have seen in the novel a parable of British colonialism, with civilized man seeking to control the savagery of uncultured man, but instead being fascinated by and eventually drawn into the savagery that he outwardly deplores. Which aspects of the story fit this reading and which do not? Support your answer with quotes from the story.

How to cite references

APA Citation Style

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition

Follow these color codes:
Author(s)	Date	Title of Book	Title of Article	Title of Periodical
Volume	Pages	Place of Publication	Publisher	Other Information

Book

Okuda, M., & Okuda, D. (1993). Star Trek chronology: The history
     of the future. New York: Pocket Books.

Book Article or Chapter

James, N. E. (1988). Two sides of paradise: The Eden myth according
     to Kirk and Spock. In D. Palumbo (Ed.), Spectrum of the fantastic
     (pp. 219-223). Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Website
(for more details, see the American Psychological Association's official site)

Lynch, T. (1996). DS9 trials and tribble-ations review. Retrieved
     October 8, 1997, from Psi Phi: Bradley's Science Fiction Club
     Web site: http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep/
     503r.html

Essay Writing

Introduction

Almost all students will at some time be expected to write an essay, or some other kind of argument, e.g. a review or discussion section, in a longer piece of writing. In English, an essay is a piece of argumentative writing several paragraphs long written about one topic, usually based on your reading. The aim of the essay should be deduced strictly from the wording of the title or question (See Academic Writing: Understanding the Question), and needs to be defined at the beginning. The purpose of an essay is for you to say something for yourself using the ideas of the subject, for you to present ideas you have learned in your own way. The emphasis should be on working with other people's ideas, rather than reproducing their words, but your own voice should show clearly. The ideas and people that you refer to need to made explicit by a system of referencing.

According to Linda Flower (1990, p. v), "students are reading to create a text of their own, trying to integrate information from sources with ideas of their own, and attempting to do so under the guidance of a purpose."

Organisation

Your essay should have the following sections:

1. Preliminaries: Title

2. Main Text: a) Introduction, b) Main Body, c) Conclusion.

3. End matter: References

Visit this website for more on this. 

References:

Gillet, A. (2009). Genres in academic writing: Essays. Retrieved from: http://www.uefap.com/writing/writframgenre_essay.htm [22ns September, 2017)

Frankenstein

Pride and Prejudice (Crash Course Literature)

"John Green talks about Pride and Prejudice as a product of Regency England, gives you a short biographical look at author Jane Austen, and familiarizes you with the web of human connections this book spins"

Pride and Prejudice, explained by a gansta'

Gender and Sex

It is necessary to make a distinction between the concepts of sex and gender. Sometimes, these terms are used interchangeably, but in fact, their meanings are different.

Anthony Synnott stated that “the body is not only a biological phenomenon, it is also a social creation of immense complexity.” (Synnott,1993:1). This phrase helps to clarify the difference between the two terms in question.

On the one hand, sex refers to biological differences such as chromosomes hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs.

On the other hand, gender is a social construction of the characteristics and behaviours associated with males or females. The idea of what is to be a man or a woman is culturally determined, it differs from society to society and changes over time. For example, women are generally associated with the domestic sphere, i.e. cooking, cleaning the house and taking care of the children while men are associated with the public sphere, i.e. working and supporting the family economically.


Reference:

Synnott, A. (1993) The Body Social. London: Routledge

How to write a Literary Essay