LITR 4232: American Renaissance

UHCL, spring 2002

Student Research Proposal

Michael Luna

On my research paper I still haven't decided which option method to use. More than likely, I am going to use the journal option. On this research paper, I am going to focus on the gothic element of romanticism. What I mean by this is I am specifically going to write about the use of Gothicism in literature.  Two of the authors on which I will write are Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe. I may even incorporate some of the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne. I will look at the methods these writers used when they introduced their literature and compare how it has been incorporated in more modern authors.  The modern writers I am looking at are Anne Rice and C.S. Friedman.  Both of these writers are part of the few who have stayed with the gothic style that was introduced by Poe and Irving.

Another aspect which I am going to look at actual styles and compare what worked as gothic in the American Renaissance and what is working today. Have the uses of color, light, and gothic structure become a thing of the past? Or do modern writers need to rely on the older methods to actually convey a sense of gothic.

I just have one question about this topic, Professor White. We did talk about the broader topic in class, and this is what I have narrowed it down to. Do you feel that I am still trying to take on too much by approaching this aspect? Please let me know when you are able. Thank you.

Dear Michael,

Your best angle so far is your attempt to discover how the Gothic has changed from the American Renaissance to its current appearances. You could also work this by surveying what continues or is consistent. In terms of the changes, how much of the new is really new and simply variations on the formula? This kind of standard may help you seen when something "really new" and gothic happens, something surprising and fresh rather than, as in Poe, a simple revivification.

Anyway, if you can find enough research on this angle, you've got a journal. You might include films, which weren't available then.

I watched Bram Stoker's Dracula a few weeks ago, and wasn't especially impressed, but you had to give it credit for trying to complicate the formula a little.

Feel free to communicate again as you proceed. I've ordered a number of books on the Gothic for our library in recent years, so get over there and look some up. The gothic's always a continuing pop culture extravaganza, and we critics can't help feeding off its energy like . . . the undead!