Requirements:
1. 4 pages double-spaced
2. 12 pt. Times New Roman (or comparable font)
3. 1” margins
4. MLA in-text citations or Chicago Style footnotes
5. Works Cited with all sources

Prompt:

“Gothic” may be difficult to define, but we know it when see the details: gargoyle-shaped rainspouts of gothic cathedrals; the dust of secret attics; the mold on mysterious—even forbidden—books. Details such as these help to both enhance gothic’s characteristic atmosphere of dread and foreboding and contribute to the work of art’s overall message or meaning. For this assignment, you will be delving into the details of gothic in order to investigate how even the seemingly smallest aspects of a text contain significance.

Steps:
1. You will choose any one text that we have read in class so far.
a. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
b. Bram Stoker, “Dracula’s Guest”
c. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic

2. Within the text you have chosen, you will identify one specific detail that you would like to learn more about (this can be: a person, a place, an object, a reference to another book/author/publisher, a street name, a theater name, etc.)
a. The choice is up to as to which detail you would like to work with—the more specific the better.** (see below list for examples)
b. Choose a detail that reflects your interests, whether personal or professional (for instance, if you are a sciences major of some sort, choose a science-related detail. If you want to learn more about literature, choose a literary detail.)

3. Once you have chosen your detail, you will conduct research to learn about your detail and write a paper that has two parts:
a. Part One: explanation of the background and/or history of your chosen detail
i. As you write this summary, you will want to ensure that you are choosing information that links that detail to the overall text.
b. Part Two: the significance of this detail to the text as a whole.
i. To do this, you will want to analyze how your chosen detail contributes:
1. to the specific passage you found it in;
2. to the text as a whole
3. to the “gothic” concepts that our class is exploring.

Examples:
1. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
a. “the rest cure”
b. Delirium tremens
c. Colonial architecture
d. Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell
2. Bram Stoker, “Dracula’s Guest”
a. Walpurgis Nacht
b. Quatre Saisons Hotel
c. “The Dead Travel Fast”
3. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic
a. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
b. El Triunfo
c. E.E. Evans Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande
d. Pedro Infante
e. Cesare Lombroso