New Spring 2020 MALAS Seminar! ENGL 624 / MALAS 600A GOTHIC BODIES With Professor P. Serrato

ENGL 624/MALAS 600A

GOTHIC BODIES 
P. SERRATO

SPRING 2020 

In this seminar we will delve into some historically diverse works of gothic fiction, concerning ourselves in particular with the significance of different types of bodies that feature in this fiction. To be sure, many of the bodies that we will encounter will be anthropomorphic. Some of these bodies will be human but some will not...or they may be but it is not clear whether they are or are not. In some texts the body will be a social one, or it will be a manufactured one, or it will be an architectural one. Whatever the case, we will have much to discuss vis-à-vis race, gender, sexuality, class, history, and politics.

Primary texts will likely include: 

Eliza Parsons, The Castle of Wolfenbach (ISBN 0977784169) Richard Marsh, The Beetle (1934555495)
William Henry Ireland, The Abbess: A Romance
Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera (0451531876) Patrick McGrath, Dr. Haggard’s Disease (9780679752615) Rudolfo Anaya, Tortuga (0826336248)
James Purdy, In a Shallow Grave (1948405245) The Nightmare Before Christmas
Stephanie Meyer, Twilight (0316015849)
Heather Kassner, The Bone Garden (1250250536)
For our first class meeting (January 27), please have read all of Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris (ISBN 9780140443530). For a finalized reading list and schedule, feel welcome to email me at pserrato@sdsu.edu.