Introductory description

This module aims to challenge Anglo-centric narratives of the Gothic, by putting in the spotlight trans-national and trans-linguistic exchanges between the French, German, and Italian domains in the ‘Golden Age’ of Gothic literature (1764-1830). By focusing on specific case studies of textual translation, adaptation, and manipulation, it innovatively brings together elements of translation theory, history of printed culture and history of the book, Gothic theory, and media studies. In particular, the module aims to strengthening students’ skills as researchers, by encouraging them to make direct fieldwork in a still underdeveloped area of scholarship.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The module may foresee the participation of external speakers.

Wk 1: Trans-national approaches to the Gothic; the literary market of supernatural fiction in Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic Europe; case studies (Le livre des prodigies, Gespensterbuch/Fantasmagoriana/Tales of the Dead, Spectriana, Demoniana);
Wk 2: Research methodologies and library research (with the participation of staff from the Library); examples in inter-linguistic, inter-cultural, and inter-semiotic translation (particularly Fantasmagoriana and its metamorphoses between Germany, France, England, and Italy);
Wk 3: Media technologies and the Gothic: magic lantern and phantasmagoria shows and their literary impact (Schiller’s Der Geisterseher and its translations across Europe, Fantasmagoriana);
Wk 4: The uncanny and the problem of ‘belief’ in a disenchanted age; belief, superstition, and science; Swedenborg’s theories and the debate on the existence of ghosts in Enlightenment Europe;
Wk 5: Intertextuality and authorship in Gothic fiction
Wk 6: reading week
Wk 7: The literary type of the morte amoureuse from Phlegon of Thralles to Goethe, Gautier, and Dumas, via the trans-national exchanges of the Napoleonic age;
Wk 8: The story of the ‘woman wit the velvet ribbon’, from seventeenth-century Paris to the phantom hitch-hiker; the Gothic, modernity, and the birth of ‘urban legends’;
Wk 9: The legacy of the European Gothic: Shelley’s Frankenstein and Polidori’s The Vampyre; literature, orality, and the image of the ghost story-telling circle in twentieth-century Gothic (Straub’s Ghost Story; Carrère’s Bravoure; Palahniuk’s Haunted);
Wk 10: Beyond the uncanny: how can how can the European Gothic help us in rethinking Gothic theory?

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• By the end of the module students will:- Have developed a broader understanding of the Gothic as a literary and cultural phenomenon beyond dominant Anglo-centric narratives;
• - Have acquired critical awareness of the trans-national dimension of the Gothic and of literary phenomena broadly intended, by reflecting on issues of authorship, intellectual property, plagiarism, and inter-cultural adaptation;
• - Have increased their understanding of the material aspects of literary production in the age of the second printing revolution;
• - Have reflected on the connections between literature, media, and technology, including pre-cinematographic technologies (magic lantern and phantasmagoria shows), stage magic, and entertaining science in the age of the Enlightenment;
• - Have put their skills as linguists to the test, by moving between different languages, literatures, and cultural domains;
• - Have developed their skills as researchers, by undertaking individual research projects and conducting direct research in libraries, developing original contributions to the field.

Research element

Inspired by research-led teaching philosophy; requires students to undertake individual research projects

Interdisciplinary

The module will involve the following disciplinary domains: literature and literary theory; translation studies; history of printed media and history of the book; media studies.

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.
This module, in particular, is specifically aimed at challenging Anglo-centric views of literary history and to show the intrinsic porosity of literature as a disciplinary field. By analysing and comparing texts in different languages, students are invited to reflect on how any serious study of a given age must necessarily adopt an international approach.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of European culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of European Gothic literature will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.