| Kommentar |
Scottish literature has frequently employed elements associated with gothic literature, and some of the most famous works, e.g. James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner or Robert Louis Stevensons’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, are masterpieces of the genre. Recent literature still draws on similar narrative patterns and motifs, and frequently novels or plays turn to rather dark historical events or the gothic tradition in revisions and new approaches to the topics of violence, horror, psychological trauma or despair. In the seminar we will cover the genre from its beginnings, starting with Robert Burns and one of the 19th-century works and then move to the present and read two more novels or dramas. Among the text we may read are Alasdair Gray`s Poor Things (we think this is a must), Iain Banks’s The Wasp Factory, Michel Faber’s Under the Skin, Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project, James Robertson’s The Testament of Gideon Mack, or a novel of the Scottish noir, Denise Mina’s Garnethill, Val McDermid’s The Mermaids Singing, or Ian Rankin’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave. We may also watch one or two movies, possibly Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave and/or Lynn Ramsay’s Morvern Callar. We will decide on the syllabus in the first session.
For MA students this seminar is part of the 10-credit module Text/Context together with my seminar on Black British Women Writers |
