ENG32130 Irish Gothic

Academic Year 2024/2025

This course will examine a range of Irish Gothic literature and film from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Irish authors and filmmakers have shown themselves to be very willing to use so-called gothic elements in their work such as monstrous figures, the macabre, apocalyptic visions, cannibalism and autophagia, and madness. The course considers the link between Irish identity and Gothicism through various perspectives such as colonisation and empire, gender, sexuality and race, and social and cultural change.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the module the students will: 1. Be familiar with a wide range of Irish Gothic texts. 2. Be capable of applying critical perspectives to these texts. 3. Have learned how to critically consider and challenge arguments concerning Gothicism. 4. Write an essay demonstrating critical skills and awareness of the Gothic impulse in Irish literature and film.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

24
Specified Learning Activities

76
Autonomous Student Learning

120
Total

220
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Critical writing; reflective learning; peer work; student presentations; online discussion boards. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Participation in Learning Activities: Consultation on Essay Plan n/a Graded No

10
Participation in Learning Activities: Discussion topic - preparation and presentation. Student choice of weekly case study. n/a Graded No

10
Student Negotiated or Choice of Assessment: Writing exercise - range of options, including critical and creative. n/a Graded No

30
Assignment(Including Essay): Final Essay n/a Graded No

50

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Burns, Anna. No Bones. Harper Collins, 2002. [novel – excerpts]
Cellar Door. Dir. by Vico Nikci. Samson Films, 2018 [film]
Donohue, Emma. The Wonder. Picador, 2017. [novel]
Kilroy, Claire. The Devil I Know. Faber & Faber, 2012. [novel]
Le Fanu, Sheridan. 'Green Tea', 'The Familiar' from In a Glass Darkly (1872; Wordsworth Edns, 2008) [short stories]
McPherson, Conor. The Weir. In Plays: Two. Nick Hern, 2004. [play]
Mulholland, Rosa. 'The Hungry Death'. The Irish Monthly, Vol. 42, No. 492 and 493 (Jun 1914) [short story]
The Lodgers. Dir. by Brian O’Malley. Epic Pictures, 2017 [film]
Yeats, W.B. Purgatory. In W.B. Yeats, Last Poems and Two Plays. The Cuala Press, 1939. [play]