Course Description

This course is a survey of Gothic literature, concentrating on critically-acclaimed novels written during the 20th century in the United States. Students will study Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison's Beloved, The Shining by Stephen King, and Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides. The course will also study the 19th-century short story "Carmilla," which illustrates vampire themes, and compare the story's literary conventions to contemporary American Gothic themes.