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Teaching the Contemporary Gothic

Dr. Xavier Aldana-Reyes from Manchester Metropolitan University discusses the complexities of teaching Gothic literature in today’s context. This overview addresses various challenges including curriculum design, pedagogical influences, and the evolution of Gothic studies. It explores the implications of gender, modernity, and critical discourse, while providing insights into levels of teaching from undergraduate to MA. Emphasizing the importance of outreach and adaptability in Gothic studies, Dr. Aldana-Reyes highlights the need for contemporary relevance in Gothic texts and addresses the ongoing debates surrounding genre and critical approaches.

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Teaching the Contemporary Gothic

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  1. TeachingtheContemporaryGothic Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes Department of English Manchester MetropolitanUniversity X.Aldana-Reyes@mmu.ac.uk @XAldanaReyes

  2. Aims • Outline of problemsfacedwhenteachingthe Gothic genre in C21 context • Curriculumdesign • Practiceinfluencedbyacademia • Critical/Pedagogicjourneyof Gothic Studies

  3. Experience • Gothic and Gender(MMU Cheshire, 2011-2012) • Level 5 / Y2 • Convened, redesigned and taught • ContemporaryLiterature in English (MMUC, 2012-2013) • Level 6 / Y3 • Co-convened, co-redesigned and co-taught • Gothic and Modernity(MMU, 2013-2014) • MA level – Gothicpathway • Co-convening, co-redesigned and co-teaching • ContemporaryGothic: Text and Screen(Lancaster 2010-2011) • Audited, taughtby Catherine Spooner • ContemporaryGothicreadinggroup (MMU, 2013-)

  4. Plus relevant blog entries

  5. Verybriefoverview

  6. Developments in Teaching • Presence at A-Level • Important and increasingpart of BA programmes • GothicMAsorMAswithGothic • Teaching guides and materials • Outreachprogrammes Open days • Training programmesforteachers

  7. General Curriculum Re/Design • Some general (ideal) aims • Tools tounderstandcontext and knowledge of Gothic • Liven up teaching • Toreflectcurrentareas of debate • Toreflectwhatweresearch, butnot at the expense of onlywhatweknowbest (Spooner 2008) • Practicalconsiderations • Textsthatworkwellwithstudents • Availability • Price • Length

  8. 1. Whatconstitutes a Gothictext? • Collection of tropes, characters? • Aesthetics? • Mood? • Intertextuality? • Adaptation? • Nomenclature?

  9. 2. Contemporaryisill-defined and unstable (When?) • Socio-historicalapproach? Cultural approach? Landmarktextapproach? Periodapproach? • C21 isuseful in delineatingcut-off point, butsometimestextsneededthatwerewrittenpreviously

  10. 3. Receptionproblems (Why?) • Popularity vs. Literarysignificance • Low-brow vs. high-brow debate • Raisesproblem of purpose

  11. 4. Discipline and context determines themedium (What? Where?) • Fragmentation and explosion • Challengetostudent and teacher • Areawithin discipline determines text • Country determines text

  12. 5. Gothic as subjector as criticaltool? (How? / Why?) • EarlyGothiccriticism • Commontropes, characters, situations, images, etc. • Development of areas of study, throughout late twentiethcentury • Psychoanalysis, FemaleGothic, Postcolonial Gothic • Researchcouncils MedicalGothic

  13. Shapedbycriticaltheory and practice • ‘Theteaching of theGothictodayistheproduct of a reactivatedpsychoanalysis, a post1950s feminismwhich has expandedinto “genderstudies”, a resurgentMarxism, a genuinely “new historicism” combining cultural anthropologywithDerridean “deconstruction,” and severalforms of “cultural studies” thathave come toinclude “postcolonial” theory and criticism, amongotherstrands. All of thesetogether, challengingthestandards set by New Criticism and high/lowculturedistinctions, havebroughttheGothic forward as a major cultural forcebytheverynature of theirassumptions and therebydrawnsomeGothic “classics” … tothe centre of what a liberal artseducationmustencompassif a collegestudentistobetruly “literate” aboutwhat Western cultureincludes.’ (Hogle 2006)

  14. Conclusions • Genre vs. Mode • Context of Gothic and Gothic Studies in the 2010s • Challengesbutbenefits • Exchange • Continuesto oppose a staticcanon • Popularity • Reading practices

  15. TeachingtheContemporaryGothic Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes Department of English Manchester MetropolitanUniversity X.Aldana-Reyes@mmu.ac.uk @XAldanaReyes

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