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Gothic literature invites us to explore the underside of human experience and examine those issues not often discussed in polite company. Body Gothic is a recent critical perspective which includes somatic difference, disfigurement and disability.

 

Using several examples with readings and discussion, this talk focuses on recent critical forays into the field of the body gothic. This area explores our relationship with human physicality, the body as our first (and last) home, and the ways in which authors invite us to traverse the very edges of corporeality. These texts allow readers to vicariously explore situations we will never live through ourselves. As the nights start to draw in, we remember that reading allows us to be someone else, somewhen else, somewhere else.

 

Texts referenced include, but are not limited to: 

 

‘Porphyria’s Lover’ by Robert Browning

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

 ‘The Blue Lenses’ by Daphne du Maurier