Exploring the Gothic for A2

I know you’re all knee-deep in revision, but I’d like you to do a little job for me – think of it as a parting gift…

Visit the new Gothic blog, for the 2008-9 cohort, which is here.  Don’t be offended by the description of you all in the post – I was only trying desperately to be amusing…

Post a comment giving this year’s cohort the benefit of all your wisdom, ideas, lessons learnt etc.  You might want to include:

• Texts that they will enjoy (or not enjoy!)  Or texts that are worth persevering with, even if they seem difficult to start with.  Also perhaps the texts that you think go best with Frankenstein.
• General wider reading advice – such as when to start and how to manage wider reading
• Lessons learnt on this unit - anything you would do differently if you were in year 12 again?  This is really useful, as they’re much more likely to listen to you saying it than teachers saying it!
• Anything else you’d like to say

Please do this before the last lesson, on Wednesday 18th June.  Thank you in advance!

Here are copies of, or links to, all the excellent presentations that you gave on themes in Frankenstein and links to other Gothic texts.  Use these to help with your revision. The top 4 are links to PowerPoint files and the bottom 4 are links to blog posts.

frankenstein – the monster and the human - Vicki

the-critique-of-society - Daniel

alienation - Emma

frankenstein-domesticity - Shomari

Discovery and ambition – Sam

The fear of sexuality – Sophie

Birth and creation – Liseli

The double – Helen

It is important to be able to contrast modern ‘readings’ of Frankenstein with the persepctives of contemporary readers and critics.  Follow the link here to look at 6 initial reviews of the novel.  Ideally, look at a few of them, but by the next lesson (Wednesday 4th June) please make sure to have read the review specified for you below, and post a comment doing the following:

• summarising that particular reviewer’s views of the novel; 
• evaluating whether this seems typical of commonly held perceptions of early Gothic novels;
• contrasting modern critical reactions to the text.

Reviews allocated as follows.  If there are 2 of you looking at one review, please both write a separate comment.  All comments will be held for moderation and published only once all comments have been submitted:

The Belle Assemblee or Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine - Liseli

The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany - Helen, Shomari

Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine - Victoria

The British Critic – Sophie

The Literary Panorama and National Register - Emma

The Quarterly Review - Samantha, Daniel