Instructor: Heller
TR 11:00 AM – 12:20 PM
Vampires, ghosts, detectives, and double lives: in this class, we’ll explore how nineteenth-century Gothic texts dramatize the fears and transgressions lurking below the surface of conventional existence. Paying particular attention to the representation of gender, sexuality, class, and imperialism, we will examine how 1800s-era Gothic reflects the period’s tumultuous history and cultural anxieties. Readings will include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, J. S. Le Fanu’s lesbian vampire tale “Carmilla,” ghost stories, and Sherlock Holmes adventures.