How I Taught Gothic Litt to my Creative Writing Class

[Dion of the Fraternity]

So okay, it's the end of the last trimester and I'm checking my students' writing journals for their short Gothic story. Most are okay, but so far I haven't seen any that could stand out.

Besides the history and the example literature I presented, one particular topic I discussed was the symbolism of monsters and creatures used in Gothic and horror literature, and how these symbols reflect man's fears:

The vampire represents man's fear of sex and the taboos that society puts on sex.

The ghost represents man's fear of the past, and how the past sometimes comes back to haunt us.

The werebeast represents man's fear of savagery and instinct.

The golem represents man's fear of technology and intelligence.

The witch represents Man's fear of Woman and what she can do to make man "impotent" (historically speaking).

The mummy represents a fear of death and decay (again, hostically speaking, hence the preservation techniques).

The faerie represents man's fear of nature and the wilds.

The zombie represents man's fear of conformity.

The demon represents man's fear of punishment.

The gypsy represents man's fear of uncertainty and the future.

[LadySoth]

Interesting ideas. A bit general, but I could agree with your viewpoint on most of them. In particular, the zombie representing fear of conformity makes a lot of sense. Actually, all of these to one degree or another can speak to our fear of death and the unknown -- that's why they're so much fun to include in stories, and so effective if used correctly.

Where literature, or any creative work, for that matter is concerned, I find it difficult to make blanket statements, because this tends to rule out the possibility of multiple interpretations. So these are interesting statements, but I'd personally use them as a spring board for further discussion.

I bet you teach a very interesting class. Was the entire course on gothic literature, or just one section of it? What gothic works did you cover?

[Archedius]

I'm so sad that my college doesn't cover Gothic Literature at all : (

[Lord Soth]

I gotta disagree with you on some of these.

The vampire represents man's fear of sex and the taboos that society puts on sex.

To me, the vampire represents my fear of getting my blood drunk.

The werebeast represents man's fear of savagery and instinct.

To me, the werebeast represents my fear of getting eaten by a wild animal.

The faerie represents man's fear of nature and the wilds.

Who the hell's afraid of fairies?!?

The zombie represents man's fear of conformity.

To me, the zombie represents my fear of somebody eating my brains.

Have I mentioned that I've got a phobia about being cannibalized? I'm serious. I can't watch cannibal movies without having nightmares every night for weeks afterwards. And even when I've gone for years without watching anything of the sort, I still have recurring nightmares where I'm trying to avoid getting eaten by something or other (Sometimes I get away, but most times not only do I get eaten, but I get eaten alive, to boot). Crap, I even had a nightmare about getting eaten by techno-organic cheetas after watching an episode of that craptastic cartoon Beast Machines!

[Archedius]

: ) Soth I hope you're being facetious. If not look at it this way- there are layers to many works of literature, symbolism if you will.

There is the story at face value where you fear the werewolf because it can kill you or what it can make you become. Further in you can see the beast, with its association with humanity itself, is unrestrained and cruel- it is a man stripped of all civility and control: striving only to fulfill its savage desires. Ergo we fear the werewolf because it can 1) kill us/infect 2) It clashes with our sensibilities 3) We can see a side of ourselves in the beast that we normally supress.

Here it has gone full circle into Gothic- These monsters are symbols of human spiritual decay in one form or another.

[Dion of the Fraternity]

I taught Gothic Litt all midterms (that's around one month for a trimestral University format). Since my students were around 17 yrs old, I gave them "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, "The Woman Who Has Two Navels" by Nick Joaquin, "The Fall of the House of Usher" by E. Poe, and "The Woman in Black" by Susan Hill.

The symbolisms are not all encompassing, of course. They're more like "archetypes" used in horror.

Yes, I agree that fairies are not scary--but faeries are. Many cultures around the world fear the wilderness and the supernatural beings that live within every stone, tree and grotto that may have been left untouched for periods of time.

[Lord Cyclohexane]

The zombie represents man's fear of conformity.

I think this is best shown by the parody movie Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D, which replaces the zombies with overworked burnt-out wage slaves.

Thank you very much for this list, Dion! It makes perfect sense, if I had ever stopped to think about it... And thanks for the suggested list of books to read, as it also reminds me that I need to read all of the ones suggested in RLCS as I'm going through and watching the old horror movies that I just got for Christmas ("House of Wax" was an wonderful treat; I wish I'd looked into Vincent Price earlier)

[Georg Kristianokov]

I'll be showing this to my Literature teacher when break's over. Maybe I can convince her, but it is a Catholic school...

[LadySoth]

I'll be showing this to my Literature teacher when break's over. Maybe I can convince her, but it is a Catholic school...

Well, you might laugh, but I actually had a Catholic priest as a music instructor and he let us play Iron Maiden tunes when we told him how tired we were of the religious music. (it was a secular school). So its worth a try anyway.

[LadySoth]

I taught Gothic Litt all midterms (that's around one month for a trimestral University format). Since my students were around 17 yrs old, I gave them "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, "The Woman Who Has Two Navels" by Nick Joaquin, "The Fall of the House of Usher" by E. Poe, and "The Woman in Black" by Susan Hill.

The symbolisms are not all encompassing, of course. They're more like "archetypes" used in horror.

Yes, I agree that fairies are not scary--but faeries are. Many cultures around the world fear the wilderness and the supernatural beings that live within every stone, tree and grotto that may have been left untouched for periods of time.

Love those gothic stories you mentioned. Especially Dracula and Usher. Haven't read "Women with 2 Navels", but will have to check it out. Thanks. This sounds like a great class. I had a terrible teacher for gothic literature at my school, I wish I could have taken a class like this instead. LOL.

I think fairies under the right circumstances can be very scary indeed. For some reason, I found the fairies in Pan's Labrynth a little creepy.

[Lost Heretic]

Dion, perhaps you can help me confirm something. When I took American Literature back in High School, we covered the Gothic tradition for all of about a week. However, my instructor explained that Gothic literature evolved out of Romantic literature.

I never truly understood how that could have occured. However, for a lack of Romantic literature in my home, when I look at the original Dragonlance novels (which is the Romantic game setting, in my opinion), there are a number of Gothic elements that appear, such as Lord Soth and the Raistlins experiments to create life.

So...can you give a quick run down about that?

[Le Noir Faineant]

So okay, it's the end of the last trimester and I'm checking my students' writing journals for their short Gothic story. Most are okay, but so far I haven't seen any that could stand out.

Besides the history and the example literature I presented, one particular topic I discussed was the symbolism of monsters and creatures used in Gothic and horror literature, and how these symbols reflect man's fears:

The vampire represents man's fear of sex and the taboos that society puts on sex.

The ghost represents man's fear of the past, and how the past sometimes comes back to haunt us.

The werebeast represents man's fear of savagery and instinct.

The golem represents man's fear of technology and intelligence.

The witch represents Man's fear of Woman and what she can do to make man "impotent" (historically speaking).

The mummy represents a fear of death and decay (again, hostically speaking, hence the preservation techniques).

The faerie represents man's fear of nature and the wilds.

The zombie represents man's fear of conformity.

The demon represents man's fear of punishment.

The gypsy represents man's fear of uncertainty and the future.

Wow, Dion, that is excellent! I am inclined to quote you as an authority for the piece on Gothic literature I am writing!

[Dion of the Fraternity]

In many ways yes, Gothic literature was born out of the Romanticists, but not of America alone. As an example, classic Gothic literature's focus on the gallant hero vs. the supernatural villain is an offshoot of Romantic literature (which in turn is an offshoot of the chivalric literatures of Western Europe).

[Le Noir Faineant]

Basically, "Gothic" can be split into "Arabesque" (escapist chivalric or fantastic tales, of which English speaking literature has only a few) and "Grotesque" (weird and troubling phantasmagorias, which make the main part of English Gothic literature).

The "chivalric romanticism" of most modern day fantasy novels is based on that kind of "Arabesque" literature, but it's not a direct evolution.

If you want to look where Hickmann and Weiss borrowed their ideas, check Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe".

[Ornum]

Yes, I agree that fairies are not scary--but faeries are. Many cultures around the world fear the wilderness and the supernatural beings that live within every stone, tree and grotto that may have been left untouched for periods of time.

Indeed. The way that Americans view "fairies" is watered down. In other countries (Ireland, for one), "faeries" are viewed anything from mischievous to downright cruel and murderous. According to certain local legends, the wild areas of the country are theirs, and they don't take kindly to human interlopers.