Wednesday, January 11, 2012

First Post

So, as part of my independent study course on Gothicism or Gothic literature at Southern Arkansas University, I'll be keeping this blog as I read fourteen novels over the Spring Semester 2012. We'll see how this blogging thing works over the course of these next few months. I should be having at least one posting per week over the different novels that I'm reading, starting with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764). As the first Gothic novel, it laid down a great many aspects that would come define Gothicism for decades after its publishing. Gothicism's main traits continue to evolve even to the present day, however, and the study of how the genre has shaped and been shaped by popular culture for centuries will be my main focus in graduate school. Bowing to one of Gothicism's ever-present forays into self-parody, I am concluding my introduction with this quote by Walpole (1753):
Were I to print any thing with my name, it should be plain Horace Walpole; Mr. is one of the Gothicisms I abominate.
"Gothicism." OED.com. Oxford English Dictionary, 2012. Web. January 11, 2012.

No comments:

Post a Comment