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This course will engage a broad array of texts by women-identified writers as we seek to collectively define the function, form, and relevance of the “Female Gothic” tradition. Coined by Ellen Moers in the mid-1970s, Female Gothic is a term used to distinguish and describe a literary tradition--gothic writing by women-identified writers—but it is also code for a set of ideas used by second-wave feminist critics to critique masculinist systems and structures. It is also a highly contested term that has been described as essentialist and limited in its imagintive scope.
While together we will primarily work with texts but we will also look at film and digital media, ranging from 18th century through 21st with texts related to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Students will engage in building tools related to a course anthology using Cove editions (https://editions.covecollective.org/), allowing them to gain experience with the editorial decisions and questions that have historically informed publication of writing by women.