Sample Student Research Project 2016: Journal
LITR
4328 American Renaissance / Model Assignments
Sample Student Research Project 2016:
Journal
Austin Green
Entry
#1: The Proposal
The Ghosts of Gothic
I had some trouble coming up with an idea of what to write about for my research
project. I knew I wanted to be able to dive as deep as I felt needed in whatever
subject I wanted, so I decided to go with the journal option. As for what I am
going to write about, I think I'd like to take a swing at writing about Gothic
literature, and how its influences (including the characteristics and terms we
have learned in class) have evolved or how they still appear in modern
literature.
I think the first few entries could be me writing about my research on novels that were the next step after the ones we went over in class. Like how Poe and Hawthorne followed Charles Brockden Brown, who came next? Did they use the same ways to portray gothic elements or did they change them with the times? If they did, how did they change, and how would it reflect back on the original works?
Lastly I would actually like to read a few novels (1-3, depending on time and
where the topic and research takes me). I don't know if the novels shown on the
Gothic term page website were chosen at random or not, but it might be fun to
find copies of both "The Heir of Starvelings" and "The Quicksilver Pool" and
write about them in terms of what we learned in class too. The covers look
amazing. How can anyone see them and not be interested?
Please let me know if this sounds like an ok plan, or if it needs any changes or
reigning in of focus.
Instructor response:
I’m impressed by your research proposal, so I’ll happily follow where it takes
you, but up front I should say that those book-cover photos on the gothic
term-page are pretty random—a few years ago I simply did a Google-Image search
and pirated the book covers that exemplified as many gothic motifs as possible.
Not to carp or condescend, but I think I also chose them because there was some
kind of gauche cheesiness about them that seemed relevant to the gothic, which
is that it’s always prone to slip into popular formulas and even parodies of
itself like the Addams Family or Tim Burton films.
On the other hand, it’s also always ripe for revival through adaptation to new
vehicles, as with the original Alien
and Blair Witch movies. Therefore
what comes next after Poe and Hawthorne (and Irving and Cooper) can be
occasionally impressive but just as likely to descend to formulaic pop.
Ten or more years ago I ordered a fair number of books of criticism on Gothicism
and gothic fiction, so some browsing of the stacks might give you some idea of
the range of the subject. My first instinct would be simply to read some
reference sources on the gothic novel so that you become familiar with some of
the more or less illustrious figures who cultivate and carry on the
tradition—and there are plenty of authors who sold plenty of books.
In my grad class this week a student brought in some gothic pages from a
somewhat later Victorian novel, the British writer Wilkie Collins’s
The Woman in White from the 1860s,
and it touched a lot of the familiar gothic formulas we were studying that night
in Poe, but with a much lighter touch than Gothicism of the generation before.
In contrast to Poe, who’s unrelentingly gothic, this text would do a little
gothic and then back off for a friendlier, more mannerly social scene, then do a
little more gothic but back off again, etc. You might find the same fading
memories in a writer like Daphne Du Maurier.
Well, I go on and on, but so does the gothic.
Entry #2: Change of plans based on instructor’s response.
While I fully understood that the novels on the Gothic term page were likely
picked at random, I thought that it might still be fun to see how even those
fall into the same tropes of the genre. After reading my proposal feedback, Dr.
White made a solid point that looking into them might not be worth the time it
takes. I think my time may be better spent researching some authors who are
considered the best in the genre, instead of random ones that are very likely
formulaic. I want to find the books that did something new with the genre, not
the ones that were more of the same. I imagine the further I would have dived
into that route, the less I would have gained from it. Onward and upward!
Entry 3: American Gothic vs. European Gothic
The first bit of research I wanted to do was to find more information on the
perceived differences between American Gothic and European Gothic. Full
disclosure, I tried my best to stay away from our course website. While a great
tool for our midterm and final exams, I thought the nature of this assignment
encourages us to look elsewhere. A quick search led me to a site that looked
promising. It contained an essay about the characteristics of both American and
European Gothic. While not what I was searching for, right away I am presented
with something new. In past coursework, I have seen
The Castle of Otranto presented
numerous times as the first Gothic novel. This article, however, jumps even
further back and suggests that a novel written in 1853, more than a decade
before Otranto (1864), was the first
of the genre.
Tobias Smollett’s Ferdinand Count Fathom
was “very probably the first novel—a form then newly developed—to propose terror
and cruelty as its main themes.” (1) A quick search about this novel found an
intriguing line from a reader’s review. While discussing the author, “The
upside of this is that he creates a series of incidents which intriguingly
prefigure the Gothic style of a later era; the downside is that the book is
simply not very good.” (2) While interesting, I fear I am going a little too far
off course since my research is focused mainly on American Gothic. It was nice
to see a bit of confirmation from the initial source, though.
Turning back to the original essay, I continued on for any information on
differences between the two versions of Gothic. The article continued on with
descriptions of classic European Gothic works, and moved across the ocean to
discuss our old friend Charles Brockden Brown. Initially I was disappointed,
thinking the article did not live up to the promise made by its title. Only a
slight difference was mentioned. When quoting Brown, he mentioned that the
author noted that America’s driving forces of Gothic could be ““the
incidents of Indian hostility” and “the perils of the Western wilderness.” (1)
Both suggestions would definitely be unique to an American story. The
disappointment faded when I realized this helped me with one of the wider goals
of my research. We got to see this small glimpse of what America’s first Gothic
writer thought of the genre. More importantly, we can see how the genre had
already changed by the time of Poe and Hawthorne. The western wilderness, or
forests, are still easily found in the stories by Gothic writers as time
continued. Brown’s other example though, seems to be forgotten about as the
genre moved on. It shines a new light on how one could classify
Last of the Mohicans. While there may
still be stories dealing with Indian, or Native American, hostility today, it
seems to be something that has pretty much left the Gothic genre in modern
times.
I think what Brown meant, and what the main difference between the two
Gothics are, is the amount of history Europe has, countered by the newness and
unknown of America. European Gothic has thousands of years of history and
locations (like castles) and myths to call upon for their literature, while
American Gothic, simply put, has what is outside their homes. Unknown country
and unknown futures. It has to make do with what it has. The early American
Gothic writers were trailblazers. I think I should learn more about them.
Works Cited:
2.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3167208-the-adventures-of-ferdinand-count-fathom
Entry #4: American Gothic Writers
This is likely the entry I was most looking forward to. Maybe to test my own
knowledge, see how many of the names I find in my research that I recognize.
Ultimately though, and I am sure any book lover can attest to this, who doesn’t
love to find a new great author? I’ve followed my American Gothic Literature writer
education from Charles Brockden Brown, to Poe and Irving and Hawthorne. What I
am most curious about now, though, is who comes next? Are we still too close to
know? Time will give us the true answers, but meanwhile (and with papers to
write!) I thought I would try to trace the major names in American Gothic
Literature since those we have discussed through our American Renaissance class.
Taking a risk and visiting Wikipedia, I did a quick search on American
Gothic Fiction. My confidence was initially boosted when I read the section on
Early American Gothic. The names dropped were the same ones listed already in
this entry: Brown, Poe, Hawthorne, and Irving. (1) Proof my education has not
been in vain! The article then mentions two other subgenres of American Gothic:
Southern American Gothic, and New American Gothic. Looking over these two
sections did contain some author names, but this was not the direction I was
looking for. I do not want the best in broken down sub-categories. I want the
collective best. I continued my search. This actually turned out to be a little
tougher than I thought it would be. Almost every variation of words I searched
still brought me to the Wikipedia page, along with the same handful of results
(including one of the research posts from the Early American Literature course
site.) Taking it as a sign I read Lauren Weatherly’s research post from 2012 on
the American Gothic. Right away I was glad I did. In her introduction, she
mentions one of the goals of her research was to answer “Who
were the most famous American gothic authors?” (2) Sadly though, her research
yielded the same results I had found on my previous searches. Plenty of mentions
of Poe, Hawthorne, a few of Irving, and then it sort of fizzles out.
I
really was hoping to find some connection to authors after our course, but the
more I research, the more I’m realizing what I should do to move forward.
Works Cited:
1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gothic_Fiction
2.
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4231/models/rp/rp2012/rp1/rp1Weatherly.html
Entry 5: American Horror Writers
As much as I hoped to find articles about 20th century Gothic
writers, I kept hitting brick walls. I think the writings that would have
previously been described simply as Gothic are now being categorized as Horror.
I feel this may slightly a cop-out, but my research was leading me in circles,
so I have to try something new. I did a few quick searches on Early American
horror writers, and the results seemed to match up with the Gothic searches:
Poe, Hawthorne, and Irving. This made me feel a bit better about continuing on
this route. One of these searches lead me to a poll of the “All-time Greatest
Horror Writers”. (1) Reigning at the top of the list was none other than Poe,
but looking down the last finally showed me some of the names I was expecting to
see in my previous research. We see
H.P. Lovecraft at the number two spot, followed by Stephen King at number three.
A little further down was another American author, Shirley Jackson.
I think all three of the previously mentioned new authors: H.P. Lovecraft,
Shirley Jackson, and Stephen King deserve their place in the canon of Gothic
Literature. They also seem like three good choices to take a closer look at.
Works Cited:
1.
http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-horror-novelists
Entry 6: H.P. Lovecraft
I do not want the next few entries based on individual authors to be any
sort of history of the author. For each I simply read one of their stories, and
want to see how they use the Gothic terms we learned in class in their own work.
Starting with H.P. Lovecraft, I read his short story
Dagon.
Right away I could tell this story was firmly planted in the traditions
of the Gothic writers who came before him. Instead of castles or woods, the
ocean becomes the setting of our horror. Instead of mazes or labyrinths, the
same ocean, spread out as far as the eye can see in any direction because the
ultimate struggle to navigate through. Unrecognizable monsters and a monolith
with unknown symbols carved into it. It really is almost a checklist of our
course term page for Gothic. Like the Brown before him, Lovecraft centered his
horror on the unknown. In Dagon, our
main character goes from one unknown (being captured by enemies at sea), to
another unknown (lost at sea in a lifeboat), to yet another unknown (the
mysterious destination he arrives at before he awakens in San Francisco). We see
the use of the fear of the unknown used by another American Gothic writer.
Works Cited:
1.
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/d.aspx
Entry 7: Shirley Jackson
I was familiar with H.P. Lovecraft prior to this research project. While I chose
a story to read by his that I had not previously read before, it was not my
first exposure to his work. Shirley Jackson, however, I recognized in name only.
I know she wrote the novel, The Haunting
of Hill House, and even purchased the novel to read in preparation for this
entry. As I did a little background information on her, though, I kept seeing a
short story she wrote pop up again and again. I figured I would read
The Lottery (1)
for fun, then focus on the book I wanted to read and write about in this
entry. This changed though, when the The
Lottery completely shattered my expectations. I am so happy I did this
research assignment, if for no other reason than reading that story. Like the
H.P. Lovecraft story before it, this story can also be viewed as almost a
checklist of the Gothic course term page. Right away we get the Sublime. This
seemingly normal and nice place uses your own preconceived notions about a nice
town to tear your legs out from under you when you realize what is really
happening in the story. The entire town is haunted by this tradition. Shirley
Jackson moves the haunted house outside to take on the entire city. The
labyrinth in this story is the lottery. It doesn’t even give you a chance to
survive on your own. It is all random. It comes down to chance.
I probably will not get to start reading
The Haunting of Hill House until the semester break, but I am counting down
the days till I can begin it.
Works Cited:
1.
https://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf
Entry 8: Modern Gothic- Stephen King
I think of all the current “popular” American writers around today, Stephen King
has the greatest chance of being known and still read a hundred years from now.
Could I be wrong? Of course, but I feel his popularity has stood the test of
time so far in the last 30 years. Other popular authors have come and gone, but
Stephen King still remains. Does he deserve to be still read in hundred years
from now is a completely different question, and one I might be a little too
biased to answer with any credibility. To change things up a bit for this entry,
I decided to watch the Stanley Kubrick-directed movie of one of Stephen King’s
most famous novels, The Shining.
My reasons were two-fold. I have seen the movie numerous times and enjoy
it, so I would be fine with watching it anyway, and more importantly, I simply
did not have time to read the entire novel. It was a fun experience watching the
film looking out for elements of the gothic. Again though, the movie moves
through the Gothic course term page like a checklist. The hotel is both a castle
and a haunted house. We have a literal maze outside the hotel, but inside the
hallways also become a maze. A maze surrounded by closed doors. We also have our
Byronic hero (for a bit anyway) in Jack Nicholson’s character Jack Torrance.
He takes the self-destructive route a bit too far, I think, to be fully
considered one, though. We get twinning with the two “Come play with us” twins.
Entry 9: Why Gothic/horror? Conclusion.
It was doing a web highlight where I did not like the author’s findings
as to why people liked Gothic or Horror that led me into picking this for my
topic. She said it was because inside people felt the need to see something
beautiful torn apart. I think the answer is a lot simpler than that. People like
to be scared when it is in an environment they know they are safe in. You get
the thrill with none of the risk. The excitement and adventure without the fear
of consequence. It’s why people like getting lost in a good book or movie. It
can give you a new experience that costs you nothing but time.
I was pretty disappointed that I couldn’t find any direct line of widely
popular and influential Gothic writers since the ones we have learned in class.
However, I think the reason for that that actually became kind of clear to me as
I was doing my individual entries on different authors. While I felt they were
all doing something new with the course terms, I literally wrote in all three
entries that they were basically going down the list, checking off terms. Maybe
we won’t know any of these other writer’s in a hundred years. Maybe they are
just following the formula, like those writers who did the books on the Gothic
term page, they just did a better job doing it. I still enjoyed everything I
read, and was glad to have done it, but it makes me a little more hesitant to
include them with the others. I’ll just have to accept for now that time will be
a fair judge to all.
"Great Star" flag of pre-Civil War USA