Diane Long Hoeveler and Tamar Heller, eds.
Approaches to Teaching Gothic Fiction: The British and American Traditions
New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003. Pp. 320. $19.75

Reviewed by Eric Daffron

The last few decades have seen a remarkable revival in Gothic studies. From books on Gothic best-sellers and themes to new editions of long-forgotten Gothic novels, the Gothic has become one of the most exciting fields in literary studies. With this growth in Gothic studies has come the addition of Gothic fiction to course syllabi. Yet, until recently, virtually no book on teaching approaches to the Gothic had been published. Hoeveler and Heller's Gothic Fiction seeks to fill this gap. The introduction to this excellent book surveys the critical revival of the Gothic and, in particular, illustrates the different classroom settings, including women's studies classes, in which the Gothic has played a pivotal role. The volume then turns to a set of teaching materials assembled from survey results. These materials include notes on editions, background, criticism, and related art forms. Particularly useful is the unit on gender studies, cited by survey participants as the most useful critical approach in the Gothic-studies classroom.

The remainder of Gothic Fiction is largely devoted to teaching approaches. After a brief introduction to these approaches, the book turns to the section "Teaching the Backgrounds." The essays in this section range from definitions of the Gothic to discussions of the philosophic, scientific, and political contexts of the Gothic. For example, in her helpful essay "Defining the Gothic," Judith Wilt illustrates her pedagogical method of staging classroom dialogues between, say, Melmoth the Wanderer and Silence of the Lambs to arrive at exciting definitions of the genre. Her courses are guided by a conviction that the Gothic blurs boundaries, resists closure, and showcases the invisible.

The next section on teaching approaches, "Teaching the British Gothic Tradition," explores Gothic fiction from Walpole to Atwood with due attention to the Irish Gothic, the female Gothic, and even the male Gothic. For instance, Ranita Chatterjee and Patrick M. Horan's provocative essay "Teaching the Homosocial in Godwin, Hogg, and Wilde" offers pedagogical strategies for unearthing "the queer dimensions of Godwin's political Gothic novel" (129), investigating how Caleb's narrative of vindication and prohibition stages unsettling but often thrilling homoerotic moments. Classroom discussions of male Gothic novels, according to this essay, "challenge inquisitive and analytic students both to assess their own sexuality and to appreciate sexual diversity in others" (132).

The penultimate section on teaching approaches, "Teaching the American Gothic Tradition," treats Gothic fiction from the early classics to later women's and African American fiction. Of particular interest is Jerrold E. Hogle's fine essay "Teaching the African American Gothic," which outlines a method for teaching students how Naylor's Linden Hills and Morrison's Beloved use "the Gothic tradition to turn it on its head" (215). This method hinges on tracing Gothic themes, such as haunted spaces and maternal figures, from the classic English Gothic to American and African American fiction.

Before an extensive bibliography of print, cinematic, and audiovisual resources, Gothic Fiction features the section "Specific Classroom Contexts." According to his essay, Mark James Morreale engages "resistant readers" with "the Gothic Epistolary Novel Project," an innovative hands-on assignment that asks students to write correspondence to and from characters in a fabricated novel and, in the process, to explore gender issues raised by this exercise. Perhaps this section of the volume could have included detailed sample syllabi in addition to the discussion questions and other pedagogical materials included elsewhere. Still, Approaches to Teaching Gothic Fiction: The British and American Traditions is destined to inspire teachers and students alike as they come to grips with literature's most terrifying genre.