Introductory Unit: On the Nature of Dreams: Exploring the Gothic
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On the Nature of Dreams: Exploring the Gothic primary texts: • selected paintings from The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision by Linda S. Ferber (2009) • selected paintings from Painting the Dark Side: Art and the Gothic Imagination in 19 th Century America by Sarah Burns (2006) • excerpts from A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia by Thomas Harriot (1590) • excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford (1630) • excerpts from The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud (1913) • “The Uncanny” by Sigmund Freud (1919) • Introductio n to Gothic by Fred Botting (1996) • “An Account of a Beautiful Young Lady” by Abraham Panther (1787) • “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe (1839) • “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1843) “American Dreams and Nightmares” begins with an exploration of the nature of dreams: their strange allegories, their omissions and suppression s, the way they don’t seem to correspond directly to reality but nevertheless bubble up from everyday existence. We’ll talk about the gothic not just as a genre defined by certain set pieces (caves, sleepwalking , teeth) but as a mode any narrative can slip into. While many of our primary texts would not traditionally be classified as gothic, studying the gothic gives us a language and a mode of reading to help us recognize when a text “haltingly brings forward the underside, the Otherness, of the narratives of national self- construction” (Savoy 18). In other words, the first unit is meant as a kind of boot camp for the kind of reading we’ll need to do to uncover the multiple and conflicting layers, messages, and motivations of the later narratives. In our first few classes, we will brainstorm, discuss, draw, and research answers to the the questions: “What is the American dream?” and “What’s un-American?” We will go back to some of the earliest texts written about America before it was an independent nation—Harriot and Bradford—and analyze excerpts for the hopes and fears they express about the country. This will lead us to a comparison of American paintings from the light-filled Hudson River School movement and those that express a darker, more fraught vision of America. From there we move to Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams and “The Uncanny” and Botting’s introduction to Gothic. We will discuss the ways Freud’s process is relevant to the study of literature and attempt to come to a preliminary understanding of the gothic. To practice reading for the gothic in literature, we will look at three short and distinctly gothic stories by Panther, Poe, and Hawthorne. Unlocking the allegories of these stories and analyzing them for the uncertainty, instability, repression , and anxiety they contain will train us to look for the gothic in less obviously gothic texts. As we discuss these stories, we will also attempt to create a framework for the American gothic in particular.
Transcript of Introductory Unit: On the Nature of Dreams: Exploring the Gothic
8/6/2019 Introductory Unit: On the Nature of Dreams: Exploring the Gothic
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On the Nature of Dreams: Exploring the Gothic
primary texts:• selected paintings from The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision
by Linda S. Ferber (2009)• selected paintings from Painting the Dark Side: Art and the Gothic Imagination in
19th Century America by Sarah Burns (2006)• excerpts from A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia by
Thomas Harriot (1590)• excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford (1630)• excerpts from The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud (1913)• “The Uncanny” by Sigmund Freud (1919)• Introduction to Gothic by Fred Botting (1996)• “An Account of a Beautiful Young Lady” by Abraham Panther (1787)• “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe (1839)• “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1843)
“American Dreams and Nightmares” begins with an exploration of the nature of dreams: their strange allegories, their omissions and suppressions, the way they don’tseem to correspond directly to reality but nevertheless bubble up from everydayexistence. We’ll talk about the gothic not just as a genre defined by certain set pieces(caves, sleepwalking, teeth) but as a mode any narrative can slip into. While many of our primary texts would not traditionally be classified as gothic, studying the gothicgives us a language and a mode of reading to help us recognize when a text “haltingly brings forward the underside, the Otherness, of the narratives of national self-construction” (Savoy 18). In other words, the first unit is meant as a kind of boot campfor the kind of reading we’ll need to do to uncover the multiple and conflicting layers,messages, and motivations of the later narratives.
In our first few classes, we will brainstorm, discuss, draw, and research answers to thethe questions: “What is the American dream?” and “What’s un-American?” We will go back to some of the earliest texts written about America before it was an independentnation—Harriot and Bradford—and analyze excerpts for the hopes and fears theyexpress about the country. This will lead us to a comparison of American paintingsfrom the light-filled Hudson River School movement and those that express a darker,more fraught vision of America.
From there we move to Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams and “The Uncanny” andBotting’s introduction to Gothic. We will discuss the ways Freud’s process is relevant tothe study of literature and attempt to come to a preliminary understanding of the
gothic.
To practice reading for the gothic in literature, we will look at three short and distinctlygothic stories by Panther, Poe, and Hawthorne. Unlocking the allegories of these storiesand analyzing them for the uncertainty, instability, repression, and anxiety they containwill train us to look for the gothic in less obviously gothic texts. As we discuss thesestories, we will also attempt to create a framework for the American gothic in particular.
8/6/2019 Introductory Unit: On the Nature of Dreams: Exploring the Gothic
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/introductory-unit-on-the-nature-of-dreams-exploring-the-gothic 2/2
Key Questions
What myths, stories, images, and other elements make up the American Dream?
Why do we need an American Dream? (Or, to put it another way, why has it persistedfor so long?) What are some of its functions?
What do we think of as un-American? What does that tell us about our nationalidentity?
How did the earliest European settlers see America? What were their hopes and fearsfor the country?
What is the gothic, and how can it be applied to America? What are some key featuresof the American gothic?
How do dreams work? What do the characteristics of dreams have to do with American
dreams and nightmares?
How should we read gothic texts, or texts with gothic elements, in order to fullyunderstand them?
What connections can we draw between individual identity and national identity inliterature and culture?
Works Cited
Savoy, Eric. “The Face of the Tenant: A Theory of American Gothic.” American Gothic:New Interventions in a National Narrative. Ed. Robert Martin and Eric Savoy. Iowa
City: University of Iowa Press, 1998. 3-19.
