Tentative Course Schedule:
NOTE: Bram Stoker's Dracula is on reserve in Du Bois library. You will have to rent all other videos, however. They are available at Pleasant Street Video, Video to Go, and Blockbuster. You might want to view the films we'll discuss in class in groups, in which case the host should rent the video and return it, but everyone else should share the cost of the rental). Anyone who hosts a screening for six people or more gets an extra credit "A" equal in value to one quiz or written response.
September 4 Literature, Film, and Close Reading: Selected Poems, William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper; Wallace Stevens, The Idea of Order of Key West. (Click on the blue links to each poem, print out a copy of each, and bring the copies to class on Wednesday at 10:10 in Bartlett 121.)
" 6 Antony and Cleopatra extracts.
" 9 It Came From Shakespeare: Gothic Pre-Texts and Gender and Sexual Confusion in Macbeth
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" 16 Presentations by Act One and Act Two Groups " Roman Polanski, director, Macbeth View the film prior to class (it's on reserve in the Bu Bois library). Recommended: Dario Argento, dir. Opera (a horror film in which the heroine plays Lady Macbeth in an avant-garde production of Verdi's opera, Macbeth). For an essay on the film, click here. See Scotland, PA, (click on the title for the website) if it has opened here (release date February 8). For a NY Times review, click here. For two others, click here and click here. Also, you might want to check out the website for Macbeth: The Comedy, a contemporary lesbian spin-off released in 2001.
" 18 Presentations by Act Three and Act Four Groups
" 20 Presentations by Act Five Group
Group reports on how the film interprets each Act. What does Polanski cut from the play? What does he add? Consider casting, lighting, use of color, distance and angle of shot, duration of shot, and so on.
First paper due on Macbeth (play and / or film), September 23, by 5 p.m. Please email it me.
" 23 Clips of Ghost scenes from Kenneth Branagh's and Laurence Olivier's Hamlet film adaptations, and the Porter scenes from Macbeth. Click here for one of the scenes from Hamlet. Class led by me. Click here for the other scene from Hamlet. And click here for the Porter scene.
" 25 Modernist Gothic: William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" (See assignment for next class.)
" 27 Class led by Meighan and Ed
" 30 Freudian Gothic Henry James, The Turn of the Screw. (Preface and story). Class led by Bryan and Tara.
October 2 Class led by Caitlin and Norm.
" 4 Class led by me.
Aborted Gothic: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. Bantam edition. Resources webpage. (See also here.) Class led by Meg and Kim.
" 7 Author's introduction and preface, Chapters 1 through (and including) , pp. xxi-xxviii; Chapters 1 through and including 10 pp. 1-86. Class led by Rich and Rayney.
" 9 Chapters 11 through and including 20; pp. 87-158. Class led by Lawren and Robyn.
" 11 Chapter 21 to the end, pp.159-206. Class led by me.
" 14 Holiday - Columbus Day
" 16 Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, pp. 5-119 (both prefaces and the novel itself). Oxford Edition. Gothic Resources page by Professor Diane Hoeveler. For more websites, see Gothic Resources. Class led by Kathryn and Angela.
" 18 Class led by me.
" 21 Queer Gothic: Bill Condon, dir. Gods and Monsters adapted from Father of Frankesntein, by Christopher Bram. View Gods and Monsters prior to class. Class led by Tori and Lindsay. Report on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 1994). FOR STUDENT EMAILS AND INFORMATION ON DISCUSSIONS AND REPORTS, GO TO REPORTS.
" 23 View Bride of Frankenstein prior to class. Class led by Tim and Liz. Frankenstein on film.
" 25 Reports by on Gothic (dir. Ken Russell, 1986) by Ed and Tori and on Paul Morrisey's Flesh for Frankenstein by Bryan and Meighan.
Second paper due Friday, October 25. Please email it me.
" 28 Female Gothic and Feminist Criticism: Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre Volume I Chapters 1 through (and including) 13, pp. 3-128. Class led by Lindsay and Caitlin.
" 30 Volume I Chapter 14 through Volume II chapter 4, pp. 128-205. Class led by Tara and Kim.
November 1
" 4 Jane Eyre continued. Volume II Chapter 5 through Volume III chapter 7, pp. 205-388. Class led by Rich and Robyn.
" 6 Jane Eyre Volume III, Chapter 8 to the end, pp, 388-452. Class led by Ed and Angela.
" 8 View Jane Eyre (film directed by Robert Stevenson,1944). Class led by Lawren and Tim. (Please bring a copy of the video to class.)
Links to Hammer films on Dracula and Frankenstein. / Draculas on film. / Multi-media Draculas. / Vampire filmography.
" 11 Holiday - Veterans Day
" 13 Mass Media, Gender and Sexual Inversion, and the Gothic (writing machines as vampires): Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapters 1 through (and including) 9, pp. 3-154. Class led by Liz and Rayney. Dracula resources Webpage.
" 15 Chapters 10 through (and including) 16, pp.154-280. Class led by Meg and Kim.
" 18 Chapters 17 through (and including) 23, pp. 281-404. Class led by Tara and Kathryn.
" 20 Chapter 24 through the end, pp. 405- 486. Class led by Angela and Lawren.
" 22 Class led by me. Bram Stoker "The Censorship of Fiction, " 1908. (Copies of Stoker's essay will be handed out in class).
" 25 View Bram Stoker's Dracula prior to class (it's on reserve in the Bu Bois library). Class led by Ed and Tim.
" 27 Report on Nosferatu (dir. Werner Herzog) by Norm and Lindsay, and on Vampyr (dir. Carl Dreyer) by Kim and Liz.
November 29 is Thanksgiving Holiday.
December 2 Matthew Lewis, The Monk. Volume I , chapters 1and 2 (pp. 3-91). Class led by Bryan and Kathryn.
" 4 The Monk. Volume I, chapter three and Volume II, Chaper 1 (pp. 92-151) Class led by Tim and Caitlin.
" 6 " The Monk. Volume II, Chapters 2, 3, (pp. 152-229) Class led by Tori and Robyn.
" 9 The Monk. Volume III, Chapters 1,2, and 3. (pp. 230-336) Class led by Rich and Liz.
" 11 The Monk. Volume III, chapter 4 (pp. 337-400).
" 13 . The Monk. Volume III, chapter 4 (pp. 400-442).Clips from 1972 Film version of The Monk (Le Moine). Class led by me. Compare the endings.
Final Paper due Monday, December 16. Please email it me.