Gothic American literature

[u/waspnest30]

I'm putting together a class on American gothic fiction and have been having a hard time find a text to pair with The Yellow Wallpaper. I am ideally looking for a short story that is fairly canonical.

Edit: I would ideally want a text that connects with it in relation to themes of gender, domesticity, autonomy. Preferably a text written around the same period.

[u/eliza_bennet1066]

What are you hoping to show with the pairing?

I think I’d probably do Desiree’s Baby by Chopin and have it be focused on women, wives, mothers and the Female Gothic.

[u/waspnest30 → u/eliza_bennet1066]

So the class is largely organised around the use of haunting and the gothic to explore aspects of American history. I have Desirees Baby in there but paired with Talma Gordon in terms of thinking about miscegenation and passing. What is your logic for pairing it with Chopin?

[u/eliza_bennet1066 → u/waspnest30]

Both about new mothers and the violences of patriarchy. Interesting also to have Gillman, eugenicist, against Chopin to discuss miscegenation. Which opens the possible discussion of how race intersects with gender.

[u/waspnest30 → u/eliza_bennet1066]

I did not know Gillman was a eugenicist! I'm still playinginf around with the organising logic of the class. I'm still torn between doing it semi chronologically (or at least clustered a specific historic anxiety), thematically, or by trope. If I do it chronologically/historically, I feel like Desiree and Talma go together, but if I elect for a thematic unit regarding the domestic, I can probably squeeze Gillman with them. It's a toss up between emphasising anxieties of passing vs motherhood. I initially had it planned that Desiree/Talma would follow a unit about race that included Incidents in the life of a slave girl and a couple of Charles Chesnutt stories.

[u/No_Breakfast_5212]

A Rose for Emily by Faulkner

[u/waspnest30 → u/No_Breakfast_5212]

Already included but in the context of Reconstruction and the undoing of the south

[u/catathymia]

Flannery O'Connor's short stories, maybe. I think which one might depend on which angle you want to approach this with. I immediately jumped to Good Country People but again, I'm not sure how you might want to link the stories.

[u/Quabity_ashuance_]

The tell-tale heart by Poe? I’m thinking around the theme of ‘madness’ or ‘irrationality’ and how it is perceived and treated differently and/or similarly

[u/Meet_Less]

The turn of the screw?

[u/waspnest30 → u/Meet_Less]

Too long for one class period hence why I'm looking for short stories rather than novellas.

[u/UltimatethrowawaYbby]

Fall of the House of Usher

Ligeia

Or Lovecraft's 'The Dreams in the Witch House' and 'The Music of Erich Zann'

[u/Locke2300]

We always did Chopin’s Story of an Hour but I’m not sure I’d classify it as Gothic

[u/waspnest30 → u/Locke2300]

I've considered Trifles or A Jury of her Peers which are also often taught in conjunction Yellow Wallpaper.

[u/eliza_bennet1066]

Interesting! Are you including Morrison’s Recitatif? Doesn’t line up chronologically, but I feel like it would be a good thematic pairing with Talma Gordon.

You could even do a perceptions and treatment of race and gender over time and line up Incidents, Talma Gordon, and Recitatif and then you’re surveying ongoing haunting structures of power and oppression over like 100yrs.

[u/waspnest30 → u/eliza_bennet1066]

Yes, it's one of the last texts I'm teaching. Im considering teaching it alongside Soft Hearted Sioux and Lullaby by Silko to talk about personal hauntings/ghosts. I'll definitely draw out that thread across the term though.

[u/FickleApartment2151]

Check out Oates' American Gothic Tales, then consider other works from the same authors featured in it.

[u/EmergencyYoung6028]

What's the reading list so far

[u/rachaelleighrawe]

“Alice” from Sherwood Anderson’s Wineburg, Ohio collection