Enlightenment Shadows: The Gothic in British Culture

“For my own part, I am apt to join in Opinion with those who believe that all the
Regions of Nature swarm with Spirits; and that we have Multitudes of Spectators
on all our Actions, when we think our selves most alone”
– Joseph Addison, The Spectator Papers

This course explores the darker side of eighteenth-century visual and literary culture. Though the Gothic as fictional genre did not flourish until the 1790s, its themes—madness, disembodied voice, perverted sexuality, witchcraft, imprisonment—pervaded popular culture throughout the period. Relying on recent theories of body, voice, and history, we will examine the agonistic relationship between the enlightened and irrational, written and spoken, scientific and magical in high and low cultural productions of the period. Class texts will include popular accounts in period journals, as well as philosophical essays, novels, poetry, and paintings. We will also turn to more recent Gothic representations (film, art, and text), theorizing the space of the supernatural and counter-cultural in contemporary society.

Requirements:
Students will submit brief but provocative “thought experiments,” a short interpretive paper (5-7 pp.), and a final essay (15 pp.) on a topic of their choosing. We will also hold two after-dark film viewings.

Visual and Literary Works may include:
John Locke, “Of Faith and Reason”; “Of Enthusiasm”
Daniel Defoe, “The Apparition of Mrs. Veal”; Robinson Crusoe
David Hume, Natural History of Religion
Edmund Burke, Philosophical Enquiry on the Sublime and the Beautiful
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
Matthew Lewis, The Monk
Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria
William Godwin, Caleb Williams

William Hogarth, selections
G.B. Piranesi, selections
Joseph Wright of Derby, selections
Henry Fuseli, selections

Secondary Readings:
Jacques Rancière, The Names of History
Michel de Certeau, Heterologies: Discourse on the Other
Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization
Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic

Prerequisite: At least two 2-- level courses in English or consent of instructor.

This class fulfills the pre-1800 requirement, and is limited to 15 students.