Wider Reading Coursework Unit: Wider Reading Coursework Unit English GCSE


The Wider Reading Unit should enable you to:: The Wider Reading Unit should enable you to: Explore the moral, philosophical and social significance of texts Comment on the authors’ uses of language Analyse and interpret events, characters and themes Compare two texts, at least one of which was written before 1900.


You will be comparing two GOTHIC stories: You will be comparing two GOTHIC stories The Red Room by HG Wells The Lady of the House of Love by Angela Carter


What is Gothic? : What is Gothic? Gothic is a GENRE of fiction But what is meant by GENRE? Clues general generic genus … Page Title Index of /Posters/d Page URL http://bluethundermovies.simpl...Posters/d/ File Name Dracula.jpg


GENRE is a category or type of writing: GENRE is a category or type of writing Main genres are: Prose Poetry Drama These can be sub-divided, eg prose becomes: Novel Novella Short story These can be sub-divided again: Horror Science fiction … What others do you know?


Short Story Genre Game: Short Story Genre Game Look at lists of different genre and opening sentences Match the sentence with its genre Say which words tell you to which genre the opening belongs Write your own opening sentence for the genre


GOTHIC DEFINITION 1: GOTHIC DEFINITION 1 ‘… the endangered heroine is brought under the malevolent power of a sinister aristocrat in the gloomy chamber of an old castle or abbey … the time of the action is … the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries … a leisurely construction of suspense and brooding atmosphere … abandoning heroes and heroines to the most frightful fates for several chapters before returning to permit their escape through some damp subterranean passage.’ Chris Baldick on Ann Radcliffe in the introduction to his collection of Gothic Tales produced by Oxford University Press


GOTHIC DEFINITION 2: GOTHIC DEFINITION 2 ‘ … interest in the strangely beautiful and horribly thrilling gave rise to the gothic novel … Although its characteristics are many and varied, the gothic novel usually seeks to create an atmosphere of lurking mystery and looming horror. Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938) offers a more contemporary example of the gothic novel. The perilously rocky scenery of the Cornish coast, the awe inspiring architecture of the de Winter family home, the brooding hero, the naïve heroine are typical gothic elements contributing to the mystery and suspense of the work.’ A Contemporary Guide to Literary Terms


Writing your own definition of Gothic: Writing your own definition of Gothic Use the library to locate books and useful Web-sites then: Explain the sort of atmosphere you would expect in a gothic story (how are these created … weather, location, time …?) Describe the sorts of characters you would expect to encounter (age, gender, appearance, level of experience, motivation …) Summarise the main features of written style (who tells the story, why do you want to keep reading, what typifies the vocabulary used, what are the key images …?) This image, on all pages, from: Page Title Digory's Halloween Bazaar | About Us | Page URL http://www.digory.com/2.4/Chet...g=age-1008 File Name Dracula_Bat_Deluxe_Thumb.jpg