| Unit name | The Gothic |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGLM0040 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Passey |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit introduces students to four centuries of Gothic literature from the eighteenth century to the present day. It will focus on the ways in which the Gothic adapts, influences, inherits, and reimagines. Students will explore the hotly contested definitions of the Gothic as aesthetic, mode, framework, and methodology. The Gothic can be used to refer to literature, film, fashion, architecture, music, and subculture, and this unit allows students to explore its roots and speculate about its future in an interdisciplinary, multimedial, transhistorical, and research-led environment. Beginning with the French Revolution and moving through the High Victorian Gothic of the nineteenth century, the haunted houses of the twentieth century, and the Anthropocene horror of the twenty-first century, this unit works to develop students' understanding of the Gothic as leaky, pervasive, and influential, re-emerging and reanimating at sites of cultural change and trauma. Themes will include the delineation between terror and horror; the emergence and evolution of figures like the ghost, vampire, and zombie; the Gothic as space for articulating marginalised experience; genre fiction and the construction of 'high' and 'low' brow literature; and the political, satirical, and radical capacity of the Gothic.
This unit will develop students' understanding of the critical, cultural, and historical contexts of the Gothic and its many branches and fields, such as the ecogothic, queer gothic, postcolonial gothic, global gothic, and gothic in translation. In doing so it will showcase the ways in which the Gothic has adapted and responded to its wider cultures.
1. A broadened experience of the range and variety of Gothic writing.
2. Improved independent critical thinking about key Gothic topics.
3. A maturing ability to apply critical and cultural concepts to Gothic literature, including considerations of history, psychology and cultural form.
4. Development of skills in research, analysis and critical writing.
5. Present findings in a coherent and communicable form orally.
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous activities. These can include seminars, lectures, class discussion, formative tasks, small group work, and self-directed exercises.
Tasks which do not count towards your unit mark but are required for credit (zero-weighted)
1,000 word presentation (0%, required for credit) [ILO 5]
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
4,000 word essay (100%) [ILOs 1-4]
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the format or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are confirmed by the School/Centre shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ENGLM0040).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
