Fairy tales are with us throughout our lives. We hear them as children, read them in school, and watch them on television and in the cinema. Later, we encounter them in film, literary, and theatre adaptations. Not all of them end ‘happily ever after’. There is another type of fairytale with heroes and heroines who must venture into more dangerous supernatural territory. These are the narratives that became popular with Gothic writers at the end of the 18^th century and they continue to fascinate us today. The ‘gothic’ has become a dynamic and popular genre in literature, art, Internet games, TV and film. Many gothic motifs and themes are linked to folklore beliefs and legends, and this module will consider how these traditional sources were transmitted and adapted as fantasy themes. The sheer variety in this genre is testimony to the exuberance of the human imagination and to the dark forces of the supernatural that have influenced culture from medieval visions to modern films. Using material drawn from history, literature and art, this course will examine the development of gothic fairytale mythologies and examine why these traditions have proved so durable.

• Demonstrate knowledge of the origin and development of gothic fairy-tale themes in a variety of historical and contemporary media.
• Recognise and evaluate gothic themes as a way to understanding the contemporary world.
• Identify textual and material evidence and understand how to analyse and interpret different types of evidence.
• Demonstrate the ability to use information from class and independent research to construct an academically-sound argument.
• Recognise and analyse major scholarly debates and trends in contemporary gothic writing.

The module will be delivered through ten two-hour evening sessions. These sessions will consist of a fifty-minute lecture followed by group discussion and activities. Students will be expected to have read the relevant material provided and use that as the basis for contributions in class.

• The ability to communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in class discussion or in written form
• The ability to work effectively with others in groups and to learn collaboratively through discussion and interaction
• The ability to think critically, analyse sources, evaluate arguments, and challenge assumptions.
• The ability to formulate and justify students’ own arguments and conclusions and present appropriate supporting evidence
• The ability to locate relevant resources in the library and online and use them appropriately in academic work
• The ability to use a range of information technology resources to assist with information retrieval and assignment presentation
• The ability to independently organise study methods, manage time effectively, and prioritise workload to meet deadlines

Type of assessment  % Contribution  Title Duration (if applicable) Approx. date of Assessment

Assignment 1 (Source Assessment) (Summative) 30% Exact nature of task will vary from year to year 

600  words Week 5

Assignment 2  (Essay) (Summative) 70% Exact nature of task will vary from year to year 1200 words Week 10

1. What does it mean to be gothic?
2. The first gothic fairy-tales
3. Gothic narratives in the medieval world
4. Baroque and the Gothic in early fairy-tale collections
5. Angela Carter and feminist gothic tales
6. The gothic fairy-tale and the supernatural in contemporary culture
7. Computer game Gothic and the sword and sorcery world
8. Gothic godmothers and the changing fairy-tale genre
9. Gothic art and the fairy-tale
10.  Students will have an opportunity to examine relevant material in Special Collections and Archives.

Fred Botting, Gothic London; New York: Routledge, 1996.

Euan Cameron, Enchanted Europe: superstition, reason and religion 1250-1750

Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press 2010.

Valdine Clemens, The Return of the repressed: gothic horror from The Castle of Otranto to Alien Albany: State University of New York Press 1999

William Patrick Day, In the circles of fear and desire: a study of gothic fantasy. Chicago; London: University of Chicago, 1985.

Jack Zipes, Victorian fairy tales: the revolt of the fairies and elves. New York; London: Methuen 1987

Background Reading and Resource List

John Adlard, The sports of cruelty: fairies, folksongs and charms in the work of William Blake London: Cecil and Amelia Woolf 1972.

Penelope Reed Doob, The Idea of the labyrinth: from classical antiquity through the middle ages Ithaca (Cornell University Press, 1992)

William Gray, Fantasy, myth and the measure of truth: tales of Pullman, Lewis, Tolkien, Macdonald and Hoffman. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2009

Jacqueline Howard, Reading Gothic fiction Oxford University Press, 1994.

Darryl Jones, Horror: a thematic history in fiction and film London: Arnold, 2002

Marie Mulvey-Roberts, The handbook to Gothic literature Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998.

Diane Purkiss Fairies and fairy stories: a history Stroud: Tempus 2007,

Tim Youngs, Beastly journey and transformation at the fin de siècle Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press 2013.

Janet Wasgo Understanding Disney: The manufacture of fantasy (Cambridge Polity, 2001)