The Gothic has always been part of literature as fear or the pretense of fear creates enjoyment for its readers. However, the official start of the Gothic tradition in adult literature is set in 1764 with the publication of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto. This incidentally is also the time when children’s literature as separate from adult literature developed with the publication of John Newbery’s A Little Pretty Pocket Book in 1744 and the set-up of his publishing company. The development of modern children’s literature moves in tandem with the development of the Gothic tradition in adult literature and is informed by the ideas on childhood of the Enlightenment and the Romantic period. Yet from its inception children’s literature has been caught in the tension between education and entertainment, between literary and popular tradition, and between acceptable and unacceptable texts for children. It is obvious that the Gothic is part of the popular and entertaining tradition that is generally considered unsuitable for children, nevertheless strongly favoured by them. This course will analyze the history and the various expressions of the Gothic, since the Gothic is immensely changeable and constantly reinvents itself, as well as its constant presence in children’s literature. The course will focus on definitions, literary characteristics, themes, settings, historical and social contexts, etc. A range of Gothic literary tropes, such as live burial, hidden manuscripts, ghosts, hysteria, family secrets, ruined buildings and bodies, sexual danger and incest, the undead (vampires), imprisonment, etc., as adapted to children’s literature will be introduced. A selection of representative texts (picture books, graphic novels, short stories, poetry, children’s and young adult novels, films, TV programs, etc.) will be read and analyzed. These texts will be discussed together with the historical and socio-cultural contexts which produced them. The Gothic tradition in

The development of modern literature for children moves in tandem with the development of the Gothic tradition in adult literature and is informed by the ideas on childhood of the Enlightenment and the Romantic period. Yet from its inception literature for children has been caught in the tension between education and entertainment, between literary and popular tradition, and between acceptable and unacceptable texts for children. It is obvious that the Gothic is part of the popular and entertaining tradition that is generally considered unsuitable for children, nevertheless strongly favoured by them. This course will analyze the history and the various expressions of the Gothic, since the Gothic is immensely changeable and constantly reinvents itself, as well as its constant presence in children’s literature. The course will focus on definitions, literary characteristics, themes, settings, historical and social contexts, etc. A range of Gothic literary tropes, such as live burial, hidden manuscripts, ghosts, hysteria, family secrets, ruined buildings and bodies, sexual danger and incest, the undead (vampires), imprisonment, etc., as adapted to literature for children will be introduced. A selection of representative texts (picture books, graphic novels, short stories, poetry, children’s and young adult novels, films, TV programs, etc.) will be read and analyzed. These texts will be discussed together with the historical and socio-cultural contexts which produced them. The Gothic tradition in literature for will be looked at critically in order to come to an understanding of what it means to be human and to how ambiguities of childhood are expressed in conceptions of the Gothic child.

Almond, David. Clay (2005)
Anderson, M.T. Thirsty (1997)
Delaney, Joseph. The Spook's Apprentice (2004)
Gaiman, Neil. Coraline (2002)
Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book (2008)
Hardinge, Frances. Cuckoo Song (2014)
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories (1898)
Priestley, Chris Mister Creecher. (2011)
Pullman, Philip. Count Karlstein (1982)
Sage, Angie. Amarinta Spookie. My Haunted House (2006)

Selections from:
Bernheimer, Kate, ed. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me. London: Penguin, 2010.
Clifford, Lucy Lane. “The New Mother” (1882)
Noyes, Deborah. Gothic!: Ten Original Dark Tales (2004)
Schwartz, Alvin. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1981)
Schwartz, Alvin. More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1984)
Schwartz, Alvin. Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones (1991)
Walpole, Horace. Hieroglyphic Tales (1798)
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter Series (1997-2007)
Snicket, Lemony. A Series of Unfortunate Events (1999-2006)
Stine, R.L. Goosebumps Original Series (1992-1997)