ENGL 2033: American Gothic Fiction
Reading and Assignment Schedule
Tuesday, August 22
Course Introductions
What constitutes “Gothic” Literature?
Homework: Read article on Gothic or Horror
Read “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (course documents)
Thursday, August 24
Discussion on Horror and Gothic
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Witchcraft as American Gothic mythology
Homework: Read “The Confessions of Tituba” (course documents)
Tuesday, August 29
Witchcraft
Discuss “The Confessions of Tituba”/Gothic trends
Homework: Read excerpts from The Crucible (course documents)
Thursday, August 31
Witchcraft
Themes present in witchcraft literature
View segments from The Witch
Quiz #1
Homework: Read to Chapter 8 in The Turn of the Screw
Tuesday, September 5
Turn of the Screw and Early Twentieth-Century
Henry James background
Turn of the Screw discussion
Homework: Finish reading The Turn of the Screw
Read “The Oval Portrait” by Edgar Allan Poe (course documents)
Thursday, September 7
Quiz #2
Discussion on Turn of the Screw and “The Oval Portrait”
View clips from Dracula (1931) and The Bride of Frankenstein
Homework: Read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Tuesday, September 12
Women’s Tradition
“The Yellow Wallpaper”
Background on Flannery O’Connor
Homework: Read “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Good Country People,” and “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” (course documents)
Thursday, September 14
Flannery O’Connor
Discussion of O’Connor’s style and themes
Homework: Read Chapter 1-5 of Wise Blood
Tuesday, September 19
Wise Blood/Cold War Anxieties
Homework: Read Chapter 6-9 of Wise Blood
Thursday, September 21
Cold War Background
Wise Blood
Quiz #3
Homework: Finish Wise Blood
Tuesday, September 26
Finish Wise Blood discussion
Information on the midterm exam
Homework: Read Rod Serling’s “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” and “The Midnight Sun” (course documents)
Thursday, September 28
View “The After Hours”
Discuss Serling’s stories
Homework: Read Edgar Allan Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” and “Masque of the Red Death”
Tuesday, October 3
Discuss Poe’s stories/connections
Shirley Jackson introduction
Homework: Read Jackson’s “The Tooth” “The Lottery” “the Intoxicated” and “The Daemon Lover” (course documents)
Thursday, October 5
No Class
Midterms due on Blackboard by 11:59 p.m.
Homework: Read The Haunting of Hill House
Tuesday, October 10
No Class: Reading Days
Thursday, October 12
Discussion of Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House
Quiz #4
Homework: Read segments from Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (course documents)
Read segments from Hangsaman (course documents)
Tuesday, October 17
Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House
Introduction to The Shining
Homework: Read background of The Shining and film analysis
Thursday, October 19
View the first half of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
Tuesday, October 24
Finish The Shining
Discussion, if time
Homework: Read Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby” (course documents), Read Part I of Rosemary’s Baby
Thursday, October 26
I will be presenting at a conference at the University of Massachusetts
No Class
Tuesday, October 31
Discussion of The Shining
Begin talking about Rosemary’s Baby
Quiz #5
Homework: Read Part II of Rosemary’s Baby
Thursday, November 2
Rosemary’s Baby
The late 1960’s
Homework: Finish Rosemary’s Baby, Read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” (course documents)
Tuesday, November 7
Finish discussing Rosemary’s Baby
View scene from Psycho
The Gothic trope of Insanity
Homework: Excerpts from Nelly Bly’s Ten Days in a Madhouse (course documents), Read Prologue-Chapter 4 of Shutter Island
Thursday, November 9
Cold War reprise, Shutter Island/insanity
Homework: Read Chapter 5-11 of Shutter Island
Tuesday, November 14
Shutter Island
Quiz #6
Homework: Finish Shutter Island/Topic Proposals due Thursday
Thursday, November 16
Finish discussion on Shutter Island
Due: Topic Proposals
Homework: Read Hedi Julavit’s “The Miniaturist” (Course Documents)
Tuesday, November 21
Discuss postmodern Gothic
“The Miniaturist”
Introduction to It Follows
Thursday, November 23
Thanksgiving Break
No Class
Tuesday, November 28
View It Follows
Thursday, November 30
Finish It Follows
End of Course discussion
Final Project Due by December 5