What is the Female Gothic? This day course will explore how Gothic novels from the 1790s and mid-Victorian period travelled to the screen to address women’s isolation and the possibilities for resistance in patriarchal spaces. It will focus on the old dark house mysteries and women films from the 1910s to the late 1940s, with a special emphasis on new cinematic roles for women and changing audiences. It will also turn to more modern films to explore the significance of both progressive and regressive figures like that of the ‘final girl’ and the many abject female monsters that populated the 1970s and 1980s.
This beginners’ level course includes a screening of Thorold Dickinson’s Gaslight.
Gaslight (PG)
Dir Thorold Dickinson/US 1940/84 mins
Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell
Twenty years after the murder of Alice Barlow, her house is finally occupied again. However, the husband of the couple who have moved in has a secret which he will do anything to keep hidden.
The day is led by Manchester Metropolitan University teaching staff:
Emma Liggins, Senior Lecturer in English Literature
Xavier Aldana Reyes, Reader in English Literature and Film
Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies and American Studies
