1. ENGLISH LITERATURE A2 Section B

2. THE GOTHIC (A04): DIFFICULT TO DEFINE? First Wave: Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, Horace Walpole Formulaic More likely to conform to generic conventions Setting: South Europe, castle or abbey Supernatural Recognisable villain The sublime: grandeur, awe and terror?

3. SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT  Literary barbarism at odds with the neoclassicism of the 1700s?  Part of an artistic shift away from the scientific rationalism of the Enlightenment?  From a primitive art to one of romance, national identity, feeling?  A reactionary impulse in response to a French threat?  Gothic texts seem to interrogate the dominant political ideology of the day?

4. NORTHANGER ABBEY Parodies/burlesques contemporary Gothic  Naïve heroine  Interpretation of experience in terms of Gothic conventions  Sensationalist  ALREADY THE GOTHIC WAS REVEALING A CAPACITY FOR DIVERSITY AND MUTABILITY

5. VICTORIAN GOTHIC o Domesticating the Gothic: Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, The Woman in White, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde: the threat of evil comes from within o Gothic motifs of Hybridisation, the double, psychological trauma and excess o Industrialisation, identity, an empire in decline, evolution, sexual repression, modernity, degeneracy, science

6. MODERN GOTHIC  Family dysfunction  Alienated masculinity  Innate tendencies towards violence  Societal dysfunction  Dehumanising tendencies of modern life  Wastelands  Traumatised adolescence  Postmodern intertextuality: “blend and clash”  Problematised femininity and the male gaze  Narrative instability

7. GOTHIC TROPES AND POSSIBLE B QUESTIONS 1.The double and inner conflict/repression (repressed embodiment of desires OR one’s “civilised” self) 2.Narrative instability 3.Multiple or unreliable narrators 4.A protagonist with a precarious cultural or social position 5.Systems of power 6.Terror 7.A challenging genre 8.Fear and desire 9.Monsters

8. BRAINSTORM EACH MOTIF AND MATCH IT WITH QUOTATIONS FROM YOUR 3 TEXTS

9. SECTION A Knowing Your Text

10. FAUSTUS: WHAT MAKES THIS TEXT INHERENTLY “GOTHIC”? 1.Mephostophilis says,.Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.. To what extent do you think Marlowe presents life on earth as hellish in Doctor Faustus? 2. To what extent do you think that Faustus’ greatest sin is his misuse of the supernatural powers given to him by Mephostophilis? 3. Discuss the view that the play provokes more laughter in the audience than terror. 4. How far do you agree with the view that the play exposes the corruption of religious practises and beliefs 5. Faustus is a Gothic victim rather than a villain 6. The play is a celebration of sin

11. CARTER: WHAT MAKES THIS TEXT INHERENTLY GOTHIC? Many readers have been shocked by the stories in The Bloody Chamber. Do you find them merely shocking? You should refer to at least 2 stories in your answer. In The Bloody Chamber, childhood fairytales become the stuff of adult nightmares.. With close reference to at least two stories from the collection, say how far you agree with this comment. “In the stories in The Bloody Chamber Carter is excessively interested in violent instincts.” How far do you agree with this view? How far do you agree that Angela Carter presents a sinister distortion of family relationships Sex and violence are always linked.

12. NORTHANGER: WHAT MAKES THIS TEXT INHERENTLY GOTHIC? Consider some of the ways Austen uses Gothic settings NORTHANGER is a celebration of the Gothic, rather than a condemnation of it.