Framing the Gothic: Portraits in Literature
| Duration | 10 weekly meetings | |
|---|---|---|
| Tutor | Suzie Good | |
| Course code | LIT24A5585A | |
| Fee | £196 | |
| Concessionary fee | £157 (find out about eligibility and funding options) | |
| Location | 50-51 Park Place |
From the Victorian re-working of the Faustian myth in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, to Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, to Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh, this course will examine how a portrait’s qualities have provided writers with a means to symbolise the conflict between the real and the metaphysical.
Learning and teaching
The module will be delivered through ten 2-hour sessions, made up of workshops, class discussions, and small group work.
The course will include a visit to the portraiture section in Cardiff’s National Museum.
Week 1: What is Gothic? Beginnings: The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole (1764)
Week 2: Gothic and the ‘other’: Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Week 3: English novelist and poet (1848)
Week 4: Jane Eyre continued...
Week 5: Gothic and the ‘other’: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
Week 6: Reading week
Week 7: Gothic and monsters: Science and Sexuality. Science - Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818)
Week 8: Gothic and monsters: Sexuality: Dracula, Bram Stoker (1897)
Week 9: Gothic and the psychological: Unreliable Narrators - The Tell Tale Heart, Edgar Allen Poe (1843)
Week 10: Gothic and the psychological: Everyday Nightmares - Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (1938)
Week 11: Continued and concluding Q+A session
Coursework and assessment
To award credits we need to have evidence of the knowledge and skills you have gained or improved. Some of this has to be in a form that can be shown to external examiners so that we can be absolutely sure that standards are met across all courses and subjects.
The most important element of assessment is that it should enhance your learning. Our methods are designed to increase your confidence and we try very hard to devise ways of assessing you that are enjoyable and suitable for adults with busy lives.
Reading suggestions
You will be provided with comprehensive reading suggestions at the beginning of the course. No pre-reading is required.
If you would like to do some reading before the course starts, here are some suggestions:
- Salman Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh (London ,1996).
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (London, 2010, 1st published 1891).
- Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography (Oxford, 2019, 1st published 1928).
Library and computing facilities
As a student on this course you are entitled to join and use the University’s library and computing facilities. Find out more about using these facilities.
Accessibility
Our aim is access for all. We aim to provide a confidential advice and support service for any student with a long term medical condition, disability or specific learning difficulty. We are able to offer one-to-one advice about disability, pre-enrolment visits, liaison with tutors and co-ordinating lecturers, material in alternative formats, arrangements for accessible courses, assessment arrangements, loan equipment and dyslexia screening.
