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!

 I hope you enjoyed this classic poem, and the macabre illustrations!  This is clearly an influence for Shelley as she quotes it on a number of occasions in Frankenstein.  I think there are a number of thematic links that can be drawn between the texts, and this is what I’d like you to focus on here.

Add a comment on this post (not on your own blog), answering the following questions which ask you to compare this text to Frankenstein.   Due by the lesson on Friday 28th March.

1. What links can you make between the settings in both texts?
2. What links can you make between the Ancient Mariner and any one of the three main narrators in Frankenstein?
3. What similarities would you say the texts have in terms of Gothic ‘features’?
4. If you are posting after others have posted, have a go at responding to their points – what do you agree or disagree with?  Or if you are one of the first to post, ask questions of the people yet to post… Or do both! 

Extension: come back later and see what the others have put – go crazy and post a second message!

Your summer project involves using your blog as much as possible to share your independent reading with others and to post visual representations of the Gothic as well as written ones.  By your first lesson back, you need to have done all of the following:

• read at least 3 Gothic texts (see Mr Scott’s independent reading post below) and posted a review of each one on your blog
• Uploaded more pictures and images of the Gothic – art, architecture, landscape, settings, weather etc, together with comments on what makes them Gothic.
• Added any more useful links you find to your blogroll – and if they’re really good, do a post telling everyone what they’re all about as well.
• Visited everyone else’s blog at least once and posted a new comment on something they’ve done (comments you’ve already made don’t count!)

The last point obviously means that you need to be adding to your own blog regularly, not leaving it all to the last minute!

You have done all of the things detailed above already – but we’re looking for new stuff to be added over the summer.  If you still don’t know how to do any of the above (eg add links, create new posts, or upload pictures) you need to see me before the summer so I can show you.  If you have any additional difficulties during the summer, you can always contact me via this blog, by posting a comment, or by replying to the email address that you’ll find on the emails you get with my comments on.

Enjoy your reading and your investigating of the Gothic – and don’t have nightmares!

This week, we would like you to do the following:

1. Search the internet for some good sites relating to the Gothic that you think will help both you and others understand more about the Gothic.  These might be links to e-texts, or social and historical context, critical readings of the Gothic, Gothic art – the choice is yours, but try to get a range of different sites.  Then post links in your Blogroll to at least 3 useful sites.  Remember to give them a category or they won’t appear!
2. In preparation for your summer project, go out with a camera and take at least one picture of anything you consider to be Gothic.  This could be a building, a setting, a landscape, a work of art, or anything at all.  Upload it to your blog by attaching it to a post, and include a description of what makes it Gothic.

The deadline for both these posts is midnight on Sunday 15th July

Remember, you should be managing your time to read at least three Gothic novels by September, one from each of the main sections (not including Goosebumps, Emma!).

 Please post a review of each text as you read them, including:

• Gothic features and conventions;
• Links to other Gothic texts we’ve read;
• Your personal opinion of the text, including whether or not you think it has maintained the impact it had when it was written.

By the end of the summer, you should have commented on everyone else’s blog at least once, making a constructive and analytical response.

Now we’ve looked at a few extracts from Stevenson’s novel, and seen a clip from the current TV series ‘Jekyll’, I’d like you to write a post about both of these, including answers to the following questions:

• Would you class Jekyll and Hyde as a Gothic novel, from what you’ve seen so far?
• What elements of the Gothic does it contain?
• What similarities does it share with any other Gothic texts you’ve read about?
• Would you consider reading the whole text now or not?  Say why.
• Despite updating the setting and changing the story, how has the current TV series tried to maintain Gothic elements?  What elements of the clip we saw seemed Gothic and why?

Then go to the blogs of 2 people you haven’t already commented on, and comment on their answers to those questions – do you agree with them?  Would you add anything to what they’ve said?

Deadline for posting: midnight on Thursday 5th July

Deadline for comments: midnight on Saturday 7th July

Deadline for moderating comments so I can view them: midnight on Sunday 8th July

On your own blogs, write a post entitled ‘The Gothic’.  In the post, write the following:

• a working definition of what the Gothic is, as far as you understand it at this early stage in the course.  Give some detail from the research you’ve done.
• Your first impressions of the Gothic – what do you find potentially most interesting about it?  What do you find least interesting about it?  What aspects do you think you will enjoy?  Are there elements you’re worried about?
• Anything else that seems relevant at this stage.