Gothic Fiction As A Whole

When I first signed up for "Intro to Fiction" I wasn't expecting to be studying gothic fiction. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I found myself enjoying the novels and letting my imagination run wild. These dark stories of corruption, terror and violence were really appealing to me. It's true that we as humans are interested in the gruesome stuff even though we don't want to be. The suspenseful stories kept me wanting to know more and I liked seeing how gothic fiction evolved throughout time. I have to say that my favorite stories were probably the first ones we read. I enjoyed Castle of Otranto and Jekyll and Hyde the most. COO appealed to me because it was your typical gothic story with castles, heros, and the supernatural. I enjoyed Jekyll and Hyde because it's a classic and has a deep underlying meaning. The newer gothic stories were still interesting but they didn't have the same feel as the older ones. If I were to teach the class again I wouldn't change much. The movies were nice and kept the class from getting bored. The novels weren't terribly long and the reading assignments were reasonable. Overall, I enjoyed the class much more than I expected.